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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 




BOSTON: 
SOULE ANDWILLIAMS. 

1861. 



7 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year ISGl, by 

SouLE AND Williams, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



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ELECTBOTTPED AT THE 
BOSTON STEnEOTVPE FOUNDUr. 



CONTENTS 



LA TOUR. 

PAGE 

Chap. I. — Acadia, or Nova Scotia, l 

II. — The Rival Chiefs, 3 

III. — Boston in 1643, 11 

IV. — La Tour in Boston, 15 

V. — La Tour triumphant for a Time, 24 

VI. — Madame La Tour, 27 

VII. -- La Tour's Troubles and Doubles, and final 

Disappearance, 32 



GEORGE BRUMMELL 39 

SAMUEL JOHNSON 9i 

JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

Chap. I. — Introductory, 115 

II. — A Young Lord, H^ 

III, — A Covenanter heart and hand, 144 

IV. — A Covenanter still, but conservative, 169 

V. — A Royalist getting under way, 219 

VI. — A Royalist victorious for a Twelvemonth, ... 228 

VII. — A Royalist defeated, but struggling, 289 

VIII. — A Royalist in Exile, 322 

IX. — Return to Scotland, and Death, 360 



LA TOUK IN BOSTON.* 



CHAPTER I. 

ACADIA, OR NOVA SCOTIA. 

In the seventeenth century the tract of country called 
then, by the French, Acadia, by the English, iVbwa Scotia, 
was a debatable land. By right of discovery it belonged, 
beyond doubt, to the English ; but the French made the 
earliest and most successful settlements on the coast. 
Without any very deep-seated faith, or fixed principles 
of action, the French people easily accommodate them- 
selves to different modes of life ; and their religious wor- 
ship, the Catholic, which, in its devotion to outward forms 
and symbols, had become a kind of idolatry, found ready 
acceptance with the rude aborigines of North America. 
Little images of the Saviour, the Virgin Mary, the saints 
— these, and the simple cross, were of better workman- 
ship, and altogether prettier, than the rude things of the 
same kind with which the savages had long been familiar ; 
and they had, moreover, the same kind of virtues. Roman 
Catholic priests, especially Jesuits, went among the In- 
dians, abode with them, and, inculcating few, if any, self- 

* Published originally in " Littell's Living Age," No. 311. 



2 LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 

denying virtues, asked only that the new idols should 
replace the old ones ; or, indeed, only that the new should 
be placed beside the old. 

And so the French, as we said, made successful settle- 
ments along the coast, had little trouble with the natives, 
carried on a profitable trade with them, and found them 
ready allies in struggles with the English ; but always, in 
every war between the two nations, English ships pounced 
on these settlements, captured the forts, and got possession 
of the country, or of parts of it. At each treaty of peace, 
however, in 1632, in 1667, and in 1696, the English ceded 
this Acadia, or Nova Scotia, to France again ; until, finally, 
in 1713, at the treaty of Utrecht, France, in her turn, con- 
veyed it to Great Britain. In these conveyances, and in 
grants made by the two governments to different individu- 
als, no very definite boundaries or limits were set forth ; 
and often the lands granted to one adventurer lapped over, 
or were inclusive of, those granted to another. About the 
year 1630, there was a French settlement as far west as 
the Kennebec River ; and thence, easterly, grants of land 
by France to different individuals, at different times, cov- 
ered a part of Maine, and the whole of the present prov- 
inces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. So confused 
and intricate had this business become, that at last certain 
commissioners were appointed to investigate and report on 
the matter. The result of their labors now stands printed 
in a large volume, entitled " Memorials of the English 
and French Commissaries concerning the Limits of Nova 
Scotia, or Acadia. London, 1755;" and furnishes some 
authentic materials for our historiette. 

Of all these grants we need mention in this chapter only 
t'.vo ; namely, the one made to Sir William Alexander 
(afterward Earl of Stirling) by James the First, in 1621, 



THE RIVAL CHIEFS. 3 

confirmed by Charles the First in 1625; in which grant 
he was empowered to institute an order of Knights, under 
the title of Baronets of Nova Scotia ; and that one by the 
French government to the Company of New France, in 
1627. This company, founded by Cardinal Richelieu, had 
great powers and privileges, and on its part agreed to 
colonize the new country rapidly, and on a large scale ; to 
establish and maintain the Roman Catholic religion there, 
and to exclude Huguenots and all foreigners. The two 
parties, proceeding to take possession of the country under 
these grants, soon came in collision. In the year 1627-8, 
an English fleet, under command of Sir David Kirk, (or 
Kertch,) fitted out by himself, in conjunction with Sir 
William Alexander, arrived at the mouth of the St. Law- 
rence River, in Canada, and captured there eighteen 
French transport ships, commanded by " M. de Lock- 
man and M. de la Tour." These ships Sir David made 
prize of; but failing this time in his attempt on Que- 
bec, he returned to England, carrying thither " M. de 
la Tour" — Claude de la Tour, father of that other La 
Tour whose quarrels and troubles in Acadia vexed and 
perplexed the fathers of New England. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE RIVAL CHIEFS. 

Two Frenchmen, having each some title to this indefi- 
nite Acadian country, or to parts of it, struggled long for 
the mastery there with alternating success. One of them, 
Charles de Menou, Chevalier, Sieur D'Aulney Charnizay, 



4 LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 

appeared in Acadia about the year 1632. He had a fort 
at Pentagoet, (Penobscot,) and another at Port Royal, 
(Annapolis.) The other, Sir Charles St. Etienne, Sieur 
de la Tour, of France, Baronet of Nova Scotia, as his 
French and English titles seem to run, had his stronghold 
and most abiding place at the mouth of the River St. 
John, opposite Port Royal — the Bay of Fundy flowing 
between. A shuffling, intriguing, faithless kind of man 
this ; Protestant with the English, Catholic with the 
French ; careless what master he served in heaven or on 
earth, provided he could maintain himself there in Acadia, 
and trade with the natives. Without a courageous heart, 
or high purpose of any kind, he was in himself no match 
for his rival, D'Aulney ; but La Tour had a wife — 
Frances Mary Jaquelins is her name — who, under all 
the disadvantages of petticoats for the kind of work she 
had to do, was worth a dozen common men. Of this La 
Tour no Biographical Dictionary gives any note ; and the 
historical fog through which we first discern him is as 
dense as any natural one that ever shrouded the coasts 
of his own Acadia. His father, Claude de la Tour, said 
that he was himself in Acadia as early as 1609 — or some 
one said it of him ; but his first distinct appearance in 
history occurs eighteen years later, when, as we said, he 
was taken prisoner by Sir David Kirk, in the River St. 
Lawrence. This Claude de la Tour, carried to England, 
was there busy enough — promising, intriguing, in all ways 
serving himself. Monsieur Denys says that Claude mar- 
ried, in England, one of the queen's maids of honor. It 
may be so or not ; but it is quite certain that he got into 
favor there with Sir William Alexander. When Sir David 
Kirk sailed again, in 1629, with ships, to make another 
attempt on Quebec, La Tour went with him, promising 



THE RIVAL CHIEFS. O 

to place the whole Acadian country in the hands of the 
English. 

And now, straining our eyes and looking through the 
fog in the direction pointed out by Monsieur Denys, we 
see, or seem to see, at Cape Sable, Charles St. Etienne de 
la Tour himself, seated in his fort there ; and his father, 
and his mother-in-law, who was once a maid of honor, 
living very quietly in a little lodge outside the fort and 
at some distance from it, with four household servants, 
{deux hommes et deux Jilles-de-chambre.) Monsieur Denys, 
who gives us this glimpse through the fog, tells also a 
little story, — that La Tour senior and his wife came, 
some years ago, with two English ships, for the purpose 
of fulfilling that promise made to Sir William Alexander ; 
that he had at first a peaceful interview with his son; 
showed him certain papers, commissions, in the name of 
the King of England, with the " Order of the Garter ; " 
entreated him to submit to the said king ; promised that 
he should be continued in command ; and, in short, used 
" all the fine words in the world." These failing of efi'ect, 
La Tour senior returned on board ship. Then English 
sailors and soldiers landed, to try what they could do with 
another kind of argument. There was sharp shooting on 
both sides ; but the English got the worst of it, and with- 
drew to their ships foiled. And now La Tour senior and 
his wife, ashamed and afraid to return to England, asked 
of their son permission to remain with him. This boon 
the son granted, on condition that they should never enter 
his fort. The English ships departed, and La Tour junior 
built a little lodge outside his fort, and supported there 
his father and his mother-in-law, who was once a maid 
of honor. These La Tours Monsieur Denys saw at Cape 
Sable, when "he passed that way, about the year 1635, 

1* 



b LA TOUK IN BOSTOIf. 

and they told him this storj'-," * In such dim light La 
Tour senior appears, and now altogether disappears and 
is buried, he and his wife, in the fog of Cape Sable. 

This little story one can hope is true, for it is more 
honorable to our La Tour than any other that we have to 
tell of him. True in part it certainly is, for papers, com- 
missions, somewhat like those above mentioned, did then 
exist. Sir William Alexander, by letters patent dated 
November 30, 1629, did grant to Claude de la Tour cer- 
tain lands in Nova Scotia ; and soon after, to wit, on the 
12th of the next May, he did the same thing for the son, 
Charles St. Etienne de la Tour. By these letters patent f 
Sir William did also make these La Tours knights baronet 
of Nova Scotia ; the same being, as he said, in considera- 
tion of their " great merit, and of services rendered to the 
English crown." 

La Tour, who, as the above story runs, defended his 
fort so bravely at Cape Sable, was then, it appears, acting 
under a French commission, dated in 1627, and had a 
grant of land at St. John's River and elsewhere — he or 
his father ; for, in the confused accounts of these adven- 
turers, it is often difficult to say which is which. We, 
however, leaving the father in the fog at Cape Sable, will 
stick close to the son, who grows more and more authentic 
as we proceed, till at last we can put our hand on him and 
say. This is he. 

Charles St. Etienne, whom we saw at Cape Sable, 
seems to have extended his possessions in Acadia undis- 
turbed for some years. Le Commandeur de Razillai, who 
appeared, in 1632 or 1633, with a commission from the 
Company of New France, as commander-in-chief of the 

* See Description de rAmerique, &c., par Monsieur Denys. 
t See Hazard's Col. Hist. Papers, vol. i. 



THE mVAL CHIEFS. / 

country which had just been ceded by Charles I., did not 
disturb the French settlers whom he found there, but was, 
as Monsieur Denys says, a good and just man. La Tour 
went to France in 1634-5, (or his wife did,) and told a 
story of his doings in Acadia. The Company of New 
France then, " having knowledge of the zeal of said La 
Tour for the Catholic religion," made to him a certain 
"concession" — extensive grants of land at Cape Sable, 
Le Have, Port Royal, and Minas ; and he lived there in 
peace, driving a profitable trade with the natives, having 
his head-quarters and stronghold at St. John's. At this 
time La Tour, strong in arms and authority, attacked, 
captured, and plundered an English trading house at 
Machias ; and to Mr. AUerton, of Plymouth, who came 
to claim the prisoners and goods, he said : " I have taken 
them as lawful prize ; my authority is from the King of 
France, who claims the coast from Cape Sable to Cape 
Cod." Asked to show his commission, this Frenchman 
replied : " My sword is commission sufficient where I 
have strength to overcome ; where that fails, I will show 
my commission." High words these, of which Monsieur 
may repent by and by. 

Of La Tour's rival, Charles de Menou, Chevalier, Sieur 
D'Aulney Charnizay, there is little to be said. He appears 
first in Acadia with Le Commandeur de Razillai, and prob- 
ably came out from France with him as lieutenant, in the 
year 1632. After the death of Razillai, about the year 
1636, D'x^ulney claimed to be his successor in command, 
and seems to have been recognized as such by the gov- 
ernment in France. Monsieur Denys, who has his own 
grievances to complain of, does not say any thing good of 
D'Aulney ; but we must bear in mind, that, in the grant 
made to the Company of New France, all prior grants 



8 liA TOUR IN BOSTON. 

were recalled and cancelled ; and also that one condition 
of this grant was, that Huguenots and foreign Protestants 
should be excluded from the country. D'Aulney, then, 
the successor of Razillai, acting under the said company, 
and being himself a zealous Catholic, had perhaps good 
grounds for his doings in Acadia, or, at least, some excuse 
for them. 

Be that as it may, he, a bold, aspiring man, built him 
a fort at Penobscot, and carried matters with a high hand 
in Acadia, or attempted to do so. At once the quarrel 
between him and La Tour began ; on what ground does 
not appear. The truth may be that these men, having 
fishing stations along the coast, and trading with the 
natives for furs, hindered each other's gain, and came 
many ways in collision. Accounts of their dissensions 
reaching France, a royal letter was sent to D'Aulney, 
dated February, 1638, restricting the boundaries of his 
government, and marking out lines between himself and 
La Tour ; but with little effect, for the quarrel continued, 
and grew more and more bitter. In these years, probably 
soon after the death of Razillai, D'Aulney got possession 
of Port Royal, and held it as long as he lived. 

And now both parties sought aid in France ; person- 
ally, or by agents, making accusations against each other. 
D'Aulney, a decided Catholic, found most favor there, 
and accused La Tour of disloyalty, of harboring Hugue- 
nots and foreign Protestants ; with some reason, for, in- 
deed, it does appear that La Tour had all along some con- 
nection with these Huguenots, many of whom, after the 
siege and fall of Rochelle, were abroad ; but always he 
kept Roman Catholic priests there at St. John's, and, so 
far as he was any thing, was himself a Catholic. In these 
his days of trouble. La Tour cast a wistful eye towards the 



THE RIVAL CHIEFS. 9 

English settlement at Massachusetts ; and, turning up the 
Protestant side of him, sent messengers to Boston seeking 
aid. In Winthrop's Journal are the following entries : — 

" 1641, mo. 9. 8, [November 8.] Monsieur Rochett, 
a Rocheller, and a Protestant, came from Monsieur La 
Tour, planted on St. John's River, up the great bay on 
this side Cape Sable. He brought no letters with him, 
but only letters from Mr. Shurt, of Pemaquid, where he 
left his men and boat. He propounded to us, — 1. Lib- 
erty of free commerce. This was granted. 2. Assistance 
against D'Aulney, of Penobscot, whom he had war with. 
3. That he might make return of goods out of England 
by our merchants. In these two we excused any treaty 
with him, as having no letters or commission from La 
Tour. He was courteously entertained here, and, after a 
few days, departed. 

*' 1642, 6. Here came in a French shallop wdth some 
fourteen men, whereof one was La Tour, his lieutenant. 
They brought letters from La Tour to the governor, full 
of compliments, and desire of assistance from us against 
Monsieur D'Aulney. They staid here about a week, and 
were kindly entertained ; and though they were Papists, 
yet they came to our church meetings ; and the lieutenant 
seemed to be much affected to find things as he did, and 
professed he never saw so good order in any place. One 
of the elders gave him a Testament, with Marlorat's notes, 
which he kindly accepted, and promised to read it. 

" 1642, 9. 7, [November 7.] Some of our merchants 
sent a pinnace to trade with La Tour in St. John's River. 
He welcomed them very kindly, and wrote to our gov- 
ernor letters very gratulatory for his lieutenant's entertain- 
ment, &c., and withal a relation of the state of the con- 
troversy between himself and Monsieur D'Aulney. In 



10 LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 

their return they met with D'Aulney at Pemaquid, who 
wrote also to our governor, and sent him a printed copy 
of the arrest against La Tour, and threatened us that if 
any of our vessels came to La Tour he would make prize 
of them." 

The arrest here mentioned is a paper obtained by 
D'Aulney in France, dated February 13, 1641 — an order 
from the king to arrest La Tour and send him home to 
answer to certain charges ; among others, that of alliance 
with foreign Protestants, [accuse cV avoir tire du secours 
des Religionnaires etr anger es.^') 

Thus far these two Frenchmen had brought their quar- 
rel ; and now D'Aulney, being prepared, will strike a 
blow and end it — if he can. In the spring of 1643, he, 
collecting all his forces, enters the River St. John, with 
two ships, a pinnace, and some five hundred men, and 
blockades La Tour's fort, whose outlook, at this time, is 
not a cheerful one. Here at last his old enemy has shut 
him up, blocking up the only avenue, and will starve him 
to death. Friends in France have promised aid, which, 
if it come at all, will now be late. Day after day he sits 
forlorn, looking seaward, sweeping the horizon with his 
telescope ; and in the river, a little way above, at the 
foot of a fall, the great Manitou raises his head above 
the troubled waters, and sways to and fro, worshipped 
by the Indians ; who, as they pass and repass in their 
canoes, pay tribute to this mysterious thing — which is 
what boatmen on the Mississippi name a sawyer, and 
curse it. At last, however. Monsieur La Tour espies a 
sail in the offing, and soon the promised signal — a ship 
with friends from France ! There is (doubt it not) such 

* Memorials of Commissaries, p. 118. 



BOSTON IN 1643. 11 

communication between fort and ship as can be made 
by flags and other signals ; for the ship comes not into 
port, and La Tour himself, in silence, under cover of 
night, leaves his fort, takes boat, joins his friends at 
sea, and sails away; D'Aulney lying there with his ships 
under shelter of some headland, altogether in the dark, 
but sure of his prey. 



CHAPTER III. 

BOSTON IN 1643. 

It requires, at this day, an effort of imagination to pic- 
ture Boston as it was in the month of June, in the year of 
our Lord 1643. Standing on the summit of its highest hill, 
where we have materials for a beacon fire in case of need, 
the outlook is a wide one. We are some one hundred and 
fifty feet above the sea level ; and below us lies the little 
peninsula, of irregular form, its margin all around in- 
dented by coves and little creeks, its surface uneven, and 
but partially cleared ; forest trees still rise here and there, 
and underbrush, and swamp, and marsh still have place. 
Westward, from south all round to north, lies the shallow 
basin into which empty the waters of Charles River ; and 
beyond, we see the forest-covered country. Eastward are 
the blue waters of our beautiful harbor, with its fifty green 
islands, on which the eye lingers well pleased. South- 
easterly from our point of view, on a little hill rising 
abruptly from the shore, directly opposite the entrance 
to the harbor, we have built a fort ; and farther away, 
some half mile distant in the north-east, where the penin- 



12 LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 

sula ends in another hill, stands the windmill which grinds 
our corn. 

This hill, our standpoint, (its summit divided into 
three little cones,) stands about midway of the peninsula 
lengthwise, and at its base comes to the shores east and 
west ; westward with abrupt descent, and eastward slop- 
ing gently. There, on its eastern slope, a few rods from 
the water, stands our neio meeting house, just now com- 
pleted ; very near thereto our market ; and all around, the 
dwelling-places of our little community of God-fearing men. 
They stand there, of modest proportions, with fit interval 
for garden plot and out-house, on each side of that main 
street which runs southward to the narrow neck of land 
that joins us to Roxbury — on each side, but at unequal 
distances from it ; clustering around the church and mar- 
ket, as a central point, but scattering away from that 
point towards the south ; and still farther, on the other 
side of it, towards the north-east, in which direction the 
town seems to be extending itself. Down there, on the 
hither side of our house of God, lies our God's-acre. Mr. 
Johnson, husband of the Lady Arabella, died and was 
buried there on his own lot ; and now many lie around 
him, sleeping quietly, far from their kindred. 

A pretty view it is as we look out over these wooden 
roofs — northward, over the water to the village of Charles- 
town ; eastward, to the harbor, where lie moored three 
stately ships ; and southward, over the neck, to Roxbury. 

From the main street, at the point where stands the 
market, a street runs eastward straight to a landing place 
at the water. On the north side of this landing place the 
shore, curving inward, forms that deep and wide cove, at 
the head of which is Bendell's Dock ; and around it are 
the warehouses of our principal merchants. On the south 



BOSTON IN 1C43. 13 

side is another smaller cove ; and between the head of 
this cove and the main street is the house of Governor 
Winthrop — his lot running from the street to the shore. 
In these hundred dwellings there is prayer at early morn, 
prayer at high noon, and at night — prayer to Him who 
is over all. 

Here we live in this year of our Lord 1643, in hope 
of better times, not without fear of worse ; for on the 
one hand are French settlements, on the other Dutch ; 
all around are forests full of savage men, and we live in 
the midst of terrors natural and preternatural ; there are 
signs and wonders on the land and on the sea. We have 
had warm disputes about a covenant of works, and a 
covenant of grace ; about justification and sanctification. 
Governor Vane held his head high and was stiff, though 
he could weep on occasion. Mrs. Ann Hutchinson had 
her meetings of sisters and talked ; our magistrates dif- 
fered ; and our ministers — even good Mr. Cotton and 
good Mr. Wilson — could not agree. There was endless 
debate and doubt. One poor woman could bear it no 
longer, but, at any cost, Would have firm footing some- 
where ; she threw her little babe headlong down a well, 
and said : " Now my damnation is inevitable." 

But, for this year or two, we are more peaceful. Mr. 
Harry Vane has gone, and Mrs. Hutchinson ; lie a sublime 
egotist, who would not follow, and could not lead ; she a 
lively, helpful woman, of too ready tongue, who talked 
herself into a labyrinth of words, and could not get out. 
These two have gone ; one away through the trackless 
forest, the other away across the surging sea. Mr. Win- 
throp is governor again — the grave, kind, gentlemanly 
Winthrop ; he and Mr. Cotton go once more hand in 
hand. The Bible — that has been, and shall continue to 

2 



14 LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 

be, the guide of our life ; and we will act out, so far as 
in us lies, the written word of God. 

Our government is a theocracy with a democratic ten- 
dency, and there is a continual struggle ; but in all our 
differences and disputes hitherto the better part has pre- 
vailed. When other means fail, our teacher, Mr. Cot- 
ton, preaches a sermon, and, with copious reference to 
the old Hebrew lawgivers and prophets, settles the mat- 
ter. Church members only are eligible to office, and 
none other can vote at elections. The governors of men 
must be the servants of God ; and in our government 
ungodly men shall in no way have hand or voice ; but we 
will govern them, and in all ways w^atch and curb them ; 
for, indeed, we left our pleasant homes in Old England, 
tore up our roots there, and transplanted ourselves here, 
not for the purpose of tolerating wickedness of any kind, 
but for quite another purpose. We came here to worship 
the God of heaven, to lead pure and holy lives, and to 
train up our children in the way they should go. 

In liberty and equality we do not believe. Our faith 
is, that men who are set in high places are the ministers 
and vicegerents of the Almighty on earth, and bound to 
execute the judgments of God ; that the confirmed evil 
doer should be swept away ; that the tree which bears not 
good fruit should be hewn down and cast into the fire. 
We believe, too, that degrees among men should be in- 
dicated by outward sign and observance. Our governor 
goes to church with two servants bearing halberds ; and 
in the church itself seats are set apart expressly for the 
magistrates. We have servants bound for a term of years 
— bound to serve, and not entitled to the prefix of Mister. 
Negro slaves too we have here — real negroes with curly 
hair, who are slaves to white men. 



LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 15 

In our church meetings on the Sabbath day, and at the 
Thursday lecture, by persuasion and by example, we would 
lead all men into the ways of truth and soberness ; glad to 
prevail so, if we can : but if such means fail, then the 
strong hand of the law shall fall on the transgressor ; he 
shall be fined, shall sit in the public stocks, shall be whipped; 
if need be, he shall die. With old Hebrew sternness we 
execute the judgments of God. No man shall have cards 
or dice in his house ; no man shall take tobacco publicly, 
and shall pay a penny for every time of taking it in any 
place. We have whipped men for shooting fowl on the 
Sabbath day, and for cursing and swearing. The man who 
made the public stocks, charging an exorbitant price there- 
for, was himself set therein ; Captain Robert Keayne, one 
of our most public-spirited men, convicted of taking more 
than sixpence in the shilling profit, was fined one hundred 
pounds sterling, and paid it ; others, convicted of more 
heinous off'ences, were swept away and utterly extermin- 
ated — too many, as our kind governor sometimes thinks. 
So we live and work in Boston in this year of our Lord 
1643, in hope of better times, not without fear of worse. 



CHAPTER IV. 

LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 

On the twelfth day of that pleasant month of June, in 
the year 1643, Mistress Gibbons, wife of Captain Edward 
Gibbons, took boat, after noon, to go down the harbor to 
her husband's farm and fishery at Pullin Point, to see how 
matters were going on there. As she sails along, she notes, 



16 LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 

with some interest, that a great ship is coming in from sea ; 
which, as it passes Castle Island, salutes with big guns — 
answered not at all, or by echo only. Soon, the ship ap- 
proaching, she sees faces and hears voices which are not 
English ; and when a boat full of men detaches itself and 
puts off, pointing directly towards her, she, frightened, flies 
straight to Governor's Island, opposite the Castle ; the 
stranger pursuing, and gaining on her, reaches the shore 
almost as soon as herself. Here, on the shore, she is in- 
troduced to Monsieur La Tour, — Sir Charles St. Etienne, 
Lord de la Tour, of France, Baronet of Nova Scotia, — for 
the stranger is he ; and one of his gentlemen, who had 
been here before, recognized the lady, and wished to renew 
the acquaintance. Governor Winthrop, who, with his 
family, is here at his garden on the island, receives the 
stranger with grave courtesy, not without anxiety ; for he 
is uncertain of the intentions of this Frenchman, who 
comes hither in an armed ship full of men, at a time too 
when our defences are in a bad state. Our fort on Castle 
Island, built some* years ago of unshapen stone, with lime 
of burnt oyster shells, and acted on by the frosts of winter 
and the rains of summer, has crumbled and tumbled, and 
is a fort no longer. Rusty guns are there, but no garrison ; 
and now here am I and mine in the power of this man, 
who sent us a threatening message some time ago ! Such 
thoughts force themselves on Governor Winthrop, while he 
listens to La Tour's story of his fort at St. John's besieged 
by D' Aulney ; of his escape in the night, and flight hither- 
ward. The governor listens with brief response, and at 
the first fit interval takes occasion to send his own boat to 
Boston to take Mistress Gibbons home, (who has changed her 
mind about going to Pullin Point to-day,) — to take Mistress 
Gibbons home ; and also, methinks, to take some message 



LA TOUE IN BOSTON. 17 

to his friends there. This done, the governor, somewhat 
more at ease, listens again to La Tour's story, to his urgent 
request for aid against his enemy. He gives the French- 
man a cup of tea, but no promise of aid ; that matter, 
being one of moment, must be referred to our magistrates 
for decision. When the governor, with his unwelcome 
guests, walks, in the level sunlight, down to La Tour's 
boat, to embark for Boston, he is right glad to see that 
three or four boats full of friends have come across the har- 
bor to guard him home. 

Being landed, "the governor, with sufficient guard," 
(for all the town is now astir,) brought him (La Tour) to 
his lodgings at Captain Gibbons' s, a little way north of the 
market, where he will pass the night. This evening there 
is much talk in town, and in the neighboring towns, (doubt 
it not ;) for the big guns were heard, and the news spread 
quick — much talk of this Frenchman, and his ship full of 
armed men ; of his purpose, and of the state of our mili- 
tary defences. One thing gives us some assurance of his 
good intentions ; he has placed himself this night on shore, 
in our power, which is a comfort to us. 

Next day, at call of the governor, such magistrates and 
deputies as are at hand assemble. La Tour, the captain 
of the ship and other Frenchmen being present^ the gov- 
ernor propounds the case to them. Monsieur produces his 
documents ; the captain's commission, " fairly engrossed 
on parchment, under the hands and seals of the grand ad- 
miral of France and the grand prior," to bring supply to La 
Tour ; who, in this document, is styled " His Majesty's Lieu- 
tenant General of Acadia ; " and a letter from the agent of the 
Company of New France to La Tour, informing him " of 
the injurious practices of D'Aulney against him," in France, 
&;c., and " superscribed to him as lieutenant general." 

2* 



18 LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 

These documents, dated in April last, are rather satisfac- 
tory, and quite at variance with the statement made to us 
last year, by D'Aulney, that La Tour had been proclaimed 
a rebel in France ; whereupon, after some deliberation, — 
though we could not, as a government, grant him aid with- 
out the consent of the other commissioners of the United 
Colonies of New England, yet we would not hinder any that 
were willing to aid him, — we answered (rather hastily) 
that we would allow him " free mercate ;" that he might 
hire ships here, and get such other aid as he could. This 
answer La Tour takes with thanks, and appears to be well 
satisfied therewith. One other request he makes ; that he 
may be allowed to land his men for refreshment after their 
long voyage ; which we grant, on condition that they come 
in small companies at a time, so that " our women be not 
frightened." 

And now Monsieur, or, as we term him, Lord La Tour, 
having leave, forthwith bestirs himself, making inquiry for 
aid. Captain Edward Gibbons is "young, gay, and 
wealthy ; " gay as a Puritan can be : he has ships, is an 
enterprising man, and Monsieur is his guest ; they talk to- 
gether, with liberal offers on the one side, with somewhat 
of doubt on the other, and will probably agree by and by. 
They two talk, and the whole town talks and debates, and 
all the country towns. To many it seems dangerous to 
embroil ourselves in the quarrel of these two Frenchmen ; 
moreover, there are, it appears, two friars in this very 
ship, now lying at anchor before the town. If La Tour 
and his men are Protestants, as they pretend to be, what 
then are these /riflrs there for ? But Monsieur himself has 
heard the report of his lieutenant, who took a Testament 
from one of our elders some time ago ; he has seen the 
world, and can be many things to many men ; he goes to 



LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 19 

church every Sunday with our governor ; and for once we 
(you and I, reader) will go with him, and see what we can, 
though in a dim way. 

At beat of drum (instead of peal of bell) all people be- 
stir themselves, but with due gravity and decorum, and 
move churchward. Governor Winthrop comes forth from 
his house, and, with fit guard of halberdiers and musket- 
eers, marches northward along the main street, past the 
church, straight to Captain Gibbons's house ; there (a few 
rods north of the church) he is joined by La Tour, and 
then (still with fit guard) he retraces his steps to the 
church — our new church, built at much cost, but cheer- 
fully. Without, it is plain, substantial : within, it is 
plain, substantial, with galleries around the walls. In the 
pulpit is good Mr. John Cotton, our teacher, and good 
Mr. John Wilson, our pastor ; and Mr. Cotton shall preach 
to-day ; he is near threescore years of age ; a smooth, ro- 
tund man, of middle stature, of florid complexion, blue 
eyes, and hair almost white. The ruling elder reads the 
psalm, and all who can, join in the singing ; he reads from 
our new " Bay Psalm Book" — first book printed in North 
America; the imprint on the title page is, "The Psalms 
in Metre, translated for the Use, Edification, and Comfort 
of the Saints in public and private, especially in New 
England." The teacher, with clear, mellifluous voice, and 
earnest, impressive manner, speaks to a listening flock. 
In many divisions, and subdivisions, with copious reference 
to the Hebrew Scriptures, to the sayings and doings of the 
old lawgivers, prophets, and kings, he enforces his doctrine 
to an attentive, believing people ; stern, serious men ; 
staid, demure-looking women ; and children prim, upright, 
but uneasy. Among these children methinks I see three 
girls — Joy, Recompense, and Pitie — and Mr. Cotton's 



20 liA TOUR IN BOSTON. 

son, Seaborn, whose first slumbering had boisterous lullaby. 
We may note, also, that the boys are not quite Puritan, 
but only as puritanic as they can be ; Sergeant Johnson 
and Walter Merry have " the oversight of the boys in the 
galleries, and if any are unruly will acquaint the magis- 
trates therewith." After church services are over, we all 
go straight homeward in silence ; or, if we speak at all, it 
is in low tones of the sermon, and such like serious things. 
Monsieur La Tour has seen much of the world ; but here 
is a new phase of it, and he must take heed to his ways. 

One of La Tour's requests, made on the day after his 
arrival, was, that he might have leave to land his men for 
refreshment and exercise ; and " the training day at Bos- 
ten falling out on the next week, we expected him on that 
day ; " though some in Boston, and many in the country 
round about us, were apprehensive of trouble ; and the 
governor had messages and letters from many men : one 
letter, we see, is from Mr. Endicott, at Salem, who, after 
expressing his fears of the consequences of allowing so 
many armed men to land, says : " Great jealousies there 
are that it is not D'Aulney who is aimed at by La Tour." 
"I think it were good that that business" (the taking of 
Mr. AUerton's pinnace and goods) " were cleared before he 
had either aid or liberty to hire ships; yea, or to depart" 
himself. Thus Mr. Endicott speaks, for himself and oth- 
ers, direct to the governor ; and many men talk, and min- 
isters preach : one minister, *' out of fear of Popish 
leagues" predicted that there would be store of blood shed 
in Boston on that day. Nevertheless, when the day came. 
La Tour, having leave, landed " forty men in their arms." 
Our train-band (about one hundred and fifty men) received 
them at the landing place, and escorted them to the field, 
where, in the forenoon, they stood at ease and beheld our 



LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 21 

men exercise, who did their best before these military 
strangers. At noon, La Tour and his officers dined with 
the officers of our train band, Captain George Cooke, Lieu- 
tenant Thomas Hawkins, Ensign Francis Willoughby, and 
other past officers, with invited guests ; dined at the " Or- 
dinary," or public house, and had a substantial dinner ; 
probably not a merry one. There was no hobnobbing, no 
drinking of healths ; our magistrates and elders disap- 
proved of that custom ; Governor Winthrop disused it at 
his table, and it fell out of practice generally. After din- 
ner. La Tour's men having dined with our privates in their 
houses, all went again to the training field. And now, our 
governor and some of the magistrates came into the field ; 
and our soldiers, in their turn standing at ease, the stran- 
gers showed us what they could do. Prompt at the short, 
sharp word of command, they march, countermarch, wheel, 
and defile ; they handle their arms briskly in unison, as 
one man, and are " very expert in all their postures and 
motions." When we saw these weather-beaten men, all 
trained to war, playing out their game so well, we thought 
of that prophecy, that blood would be shed in Boston this 
day. Suddenly, to our great astonishment, " they threw 
down their pieces, cast ofi* their bandoliers, drew their 
swords, and charged " right towards us ; the clear steel 
flashing bright in the evening sunlight ! Whereat " some 
alarm was excited among the women and children," and 
perhaps some suspicion among full-grown men. But they 
only feigned to charge, and ended the day's exercise so ; 
for now La Tour asked our governor for leave to depart, 
and leave being willingly given, there was again a military 
escort. Our captain drawing his men out into a march, 
the French fell into the middle ; and so they marched, 
drum beating, colors flying, eastward to the main street, 



22 LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 

then northward to the market ; and, wheeling to the right 
there, onward to the landing place at the shore. When 
we came to their boat they gave a volley of shot and em- 
barked ; and no blood was shed that day in Boston. 

There was, as we said, much talk and debate about this 
matter of giving aid to La Tour ; and many men were dis- 
satisfied with the favor shown and the concessions made to 
him — to him who sent us a threatening message once, 
who killed two Englishmen, and took Mr. Allerton's goods 
at Machias, some ten years ago ; who is, as some of us 
believe, a Papist ! And at last the governor and near 
magistrates met again to consider what we had done, and 
what we were doing. There was much debate ; many ar- 
guments on both sides, and ample quotations from the Old 
Testament ; finally a kind of conclusion, that we could not 
apprehend it more unlawful to allow La Tour to provide 
himself succor amongst our people, than it was for Joshua 
to aid the Gibeonites against the rest of the Canaanites, 
or for Jehoshaphat to aid Jehoram against Moab. 

But all this time. Monsieur, with church-going and 
training, has not been unmindful of his own especial 
business. At Bendell's Dock, and all around the cove, 
men are busy ; none more so than Captain Edward Gib- 
bons, who is fitting out ships with provisions and crews. 
All mechanics have enough to do, for there is great haste, 
and it appears that Captain Gibbons and the Frenchman 
have struck a bargain. Captain Edward Gibbons and 
Thomas Hawkins, " merchants and part owners of the 
ships Seabridge, Philip and Mary, Increase, and Grey- 
hound," on the one part, " Monsieur La Tour, Knight of 
the King, Lieutenant General of New France," on the 
other part. The Seabridge sliall have fourteen pieces of 
ordnance, fourteen able seamen and a boy ; the Philip 



LA TOL^R IN BOSTON. 23 

and Mary, and the Increase, ten guns each ; and the 
Greyhound, four " murderers ; " all with tackle, apparel, 
and victual for two months from the 10th of July next. 
These ships are to sail in company with La Tour's ship, 
the Clement, to the fort of said La Tour, in the River 
St. John ; but only to defend ourselves and La Tour 
against Monsieur Dony, (so we spell it,) " or any that 
shall unjustly assault or oppose La Tour in his way to his 
fort." La Tour may put on board each ship ten soldiers, 
but no more ; for we are cautious. Monsieur La Tour 
is to pay charter for these ships five hundred and twenty 
pounds sterling per month ; pillage and spoil of goods to 
be divided between the contracting parties. Such is the 
agreement* as it stands written, dated June 30, 1643, 
and witnessed by Robert Keayne, William Ting, and 
Etienne Dupree, (probably La Tour's lieutenant.) 

And so these long summer days wear away amid the 
bustle of the outfit of so many ships. From early dawn 
to set of sun, workmen ply their busy trades ; around the 
cove, and along the shore, all is astir, each man doing his 
utmost, till at last, on the 14th of July, the ships are all 
fitted and ready for sea, having on board some seventy 
land soldiers, which La Tour has enlisted here at forty 
shillings per month. 

Now, on the last day of La Tour's stay here, we notice 
that the friars are on shore, taking leave of Mr. Cotton in 
a very quiet way. One of them " is well learned, a ready 
disputant, and very learned in the Latin tongue ; " and 
they have been on shore once or twice before, but covertly. 
Friars ! they had best keep out of sight. One of our fears 
all along has been, that if we did not aid La Tour to get 

* See Hazard's Hist. Col., i. 499. 



24 LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 

away home, he would stay here, and these friars would 
stay. We are glad they are going, and we will take leave 
of them civilly ; or Mr. Cotton will, for he is so learned, 
and so good, they cannot harm him. 

Towards evening, Governor Winthrop and many of our 
chief men accompany Monsieur to his boat, at the land- 
ing place, and take leave of him there, for the ships are 
all ready, with anchors apeak. Methinks Captain Gibbons 
stands long on the shore, gazing on these ships, which, 
with swelling sails lighted up by the setting sun, are fast 
receding in the distance. If he has no misgivings, he is a 
sanguine man. The outlay is great, and he has no surety 
of reimbursement — nothing but the promise of a rather 
doubtful looking stranger, who has agreed to ship furs to 
England, and place the proceeds there to the credit of 
Captain Edward Gibbons ! Now he is " gay, young, and 
wealthy ; " a few years hence, he will certainly be an older 
man, but perhaps not so gay, nor so wealthy. 



CHAPTER V. 

LA TOUR TRIUMPHANT FOR A TIME. 

Monsieur D'Aulney, whom we left some time ago in 
the River St. John, lying there in the dark, under shel- 
ter of some headland, blockading La Tour's fort, did not 
dream of what had happened, but felt sure of his prey. 
Counting the days, he thought that soon his famished foe 
must surrender at discretion. Methinks he was astounded 
that day when the fleet from Boston hove in sight — five 
ships steering straight inward to St. John's. Setting sail 



LA TOUR TRIUMPHANT FOR A TIME. 25 

ir\ haste, D'Aulney, by some manoeuvre, escaped and fled 
homeward to Port Royal. The enemy pursuing, he ran 
his ships ashore in a harbor, and began to fortify them ; 
whereupon La Tour sent a messenger on shore with let- 
ters to D'Aulney — letters from Governor Winthrop, from 
Captain Hawkins, and from La Tour himself. This mes- 
senger, "being one who could speak French well, was 
carried blindfolded into the house, and there kept six or 
seven hours;" and all the time D'Aulney's men were 
busy " fortifying with palisadoes ; the friars, as busy as 
any, encouraging the women, (who cried pitifully,) telling 
them" that the English "were infidels and heretics." 
La Tour's letter D'Aulney refused to open, because it was 
not superscribed to the lieutenant general, &c., but to the 
governor ; and to Captain Hawkins he returned answer, 
refusing to come to any terms of peace with La Tour, and 
sent a copy of the arret against him. Now, these means 
having failed of effect, La Tour urged Captain Hawkins to 
land his Englishmen and attack the enemy ; but this the 
captain refused to do, it being no part of the agreement. 
Nevertheless, he gave permission to any that might choose 
to go ; and with some thirty of the English, joined to his 
own forces. La Tour landed and assaulted the foe ; but 
D'Aulney at bay fought bravely and beat them off. La 
Tour then, setting fire to a mill and some standing corn, 
doing what mischief he could, embarked and went with 
the Boston ships home to St. John's. 

Captain Hawkins, having now, according to agreement, 
placed La Tour in his fort again, will leave him there, 
and depart himself for Boston ; but first the " pillage and 
spoil of goods " shall be divided among the contracting 
parties ; for such spoil there was. A trading pinnace of 
D'Aulney's, supposing that he and his ships were still 

3 



26 LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 

there at St. John's, came in, full of moose and beaver 
skins, and was made prize of. This being divided accord- 
ing to agreement, Captain Hawkins set sail on his ships, 
homeward bound, leaving Monsieur to his own resources. 

And now, La Tour, triumphant for a time, acted on the 
aggressive ; and a party of his men, with some English, 
made a successful attack on D'Aulney's establishment at 
Penobscot. Thus he, triumphant for a time ; but for short 
time only ; for his untiring and implacable foe, going him- 
self to France, told his old story there, with additions — 
that this La Tour harbors Huguenots and foreigners ; that 
he seeks aid, in New England, from enemies of the only 
true religion, and gets it ; that he is not a good and loyal 
subject of his most Catholic majesty. He tells his story, 
and is believed, and prevails, getting arrets and assist- 
ance ; though Madame La Tour, who at this very time 
was also there in France, did her utmost for a husband 
who is hardly w^orth the trouble. He, sitting at home in 
his fort, receives letters from his wife, informing him of 
the state of matters abroad, and that he too must do his 
utmost, or the worst will come. Whereupon Monsieur, 
having little hope elsewhere, turns once more to his 
friends of New England, enemies of the true religion 
though they be ; and in the summer of the next year 
(1644) we see him there again, telling his story to Gov- 
ernor Endicott, at Salem. He tells it in a pathetic, per- 
suasive \vay, in his native French ; and the governor, 
(notwithstanding his own letter to Winthrop last year,) 
moved with compassion for the man, appoints a meeting 
of magistrates and ministers at Boston to consider the 
matter. They meet, consider, debate, and adjourn, to 
meet again at Salem next week. We notice that Mon- 
sieur at this time plays a new card, or an old one which 



MADAME LA TOUR. 27 

he has kept long out of sight : that grant, from Sir Wil- 
liam Alexander, of lands in Nova Scotia, confirmed under 
the great seal of Scotland, with letters patent of a Scotch 
baronetcy, is now brought forward to English eyes with 
some efi"ect. Nevertheless, the magistrates, after much 
debate, could agree only to write a letter — a letter to 
D' Aulney — complaining of the wrongs he had done to 
New England people, apologizing for the aid given to his 
enemy last year, and asserting the determination of the 
governor and council to protect New England merchants 
in their trade with La Tour. With this letter, and a 
Massachusetts vessel in company, laden with provisions, 
La Tour, on the ninth day of September, set sail from 
Boston, homeward bound; his wife being, at about that 
date, off Cape Sable, under hatches of the ship Gilliflower, 
among boxes and barrels, bound, not homeward to the 
fort at St. John's, but to Boston in Massachusetts, much 
against her will. The captain of the ship Gilliflower shall 
learn, when the day of reckoning comes, that the weaker 
sex has now and then a bit of strength in it. 



CHAPTER VL 

MADAME LA TOUK. 

The wife of La Tour, Frances Mary Jaquelins, is 
*' a remarkable woman, or an uncommon man," and is 
deserving of a chapter in the Romance of History, were 
the materials at hand ; but, unhappily, they are not, and 
the conscientious historian must, for the present, center t 
himself with a meagre section or two of her story. 



28 LA TOTJK rN BOSTON. 

Of her parentage, her infancy, of all her girlhood, there 
is no word to say. That she had her young joys and 
sorrows — her dreams of love and life, softer, sweeter 
than she could realize — no one need doubt ; for she too 
was a woman, though she had a man's work to do, and 
did it better than the most. Married to this La Tour, 
living almost every where without any abiding place, the 
domestic virtues, if she had inclination to them, had 
small chance for development, and she was by circum- 
stance and habit a kind of Amazon, and we must figure 
her so. 

We can discern this Madame La Tour abroad in 
Europe, in a dim light, seeking aid in France, whence, 
as we have seen, she wrote letters to her husband, in- 
forming him that D'Aulney had prevailed there. That 
ship, the Clement, from Rochelle, to which La Tour 
escaped in the night when his fort was besieged in 1643, 
was probably despatched by her. D'Aulney says that she 
fled from France, being " proclaimed a traitor " there ; 
fled, no doubt, to England, to see what she could do in 
that country ; for, on the I7th of September, 1644, a few 
days after Monsieur La Tour made his second departure 
from Boston, and before the good people there had done 
saying good riddance, there came into the harbor the 
ship Gilliflower, Captain Bayley, from London, bringing 
Madame La Tour, who had a story to tell the governor 
and others — how she chartered this ship in London, of 
Alderman Berkley and Captain Bayley, to convey herself, 
her people and goods to her husband's fort at St. John's ; 
how the said captain, trading along on the coasts of Can- 
ada for his own profit, lengthened out the voyage to six 
months, to her great detriment — for when they at last 
arrived off Cape Sable, D'Aulney was there, lying in wait 



MADAME LA TOUR. 29 

for this very ship, or for one conveyinf? Madame and her 
goods ; how Captain Bayley, stowing herself and her peo- 
ple under hatches, among bales and barrels, to keep them 
out of sight, told D'Aulney a tale ; namely, that he was 
bound from London direct to Boston, and knew nothing 
about Monsieur and Madame La Tour ; and how D'Aulney, 
believing the tale, gave Captain Bailey a letter to the 
Governor of Massachusetts, and let them go, right glad to 
escape so. 

This was Madame' s true story ; and thereupon she 
claimed damages of Captain Bayley for unnecessary delay 
and detention, whereby, as she alleged, D'Aulney had been 
able to intercept her, and prevent her access to St. John's. 
Forthwith she arrested the captain and the merchant 
of the ship, and got possession of the goods on execution. 
This matter, brought before the Court of Assistants, made 
much noise and trouble in Massachusetts. The merchants 
of Charlestown took part with Captain Bayley ; the mer- 
chants of Boston, *' some of them being deeply engaged 
to La Tour," assisted the lady ; but she, with right, pre- 
vailed, and got judgment for two thousand pounds sterling. 
At the time of this trial of Madame La Tour's suit there 
came to Boston one Marie, " habited like a gentleman, but 
supposed to be a friar,'' a messenger from Monsieur 
D'Aulney, bringing letters from him to the governor, (En- 
dicott,) and documents showing that La Tour had been 
condemned in France as a rebel and a traitor. This mes- 
senger made complaints of the assistance given La Tour 
last year, and also propositions of peace and amity, &c. 
The governor and magistrates " urged much for a reconcil- 
iation with La Tour," and that D'Aulney should "permit 
his lady to go to her husband." As for La Tour, the mes- 
senger answered rather slightingly ; and for his lady, " she 



30 LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 

was known to be the cause of his contempt and rebellion ; " 
she should not go to her husband ; and D'Aulney would 
take her even out of Boston ships if they came in his way. 
This messenger, having concluded his business, " made 
great haste away," to tell his master the news. Neverthe- 
less, the lady, nothing daunted, hired three ships in Boston, 
sailed away in October, 1644, and got safe home to her 
husband. 

Very soon after her arrival, this husband, leaving the 
wife with a few men, French, English, Swiss, to keep 
the fort against D'Aulney, took ship and went about seek- 
ing aid. 

She, looking about her there in the fort, sees some crea- 
tures that are not very useful — a kind of men who can 
eat, and say mass, but can do nothing else ; these, " the 
friars and their confederates," she at once dismisses ; for 
she does not lack decision of character, and will harbor no 
useless cattle. These creatures, going straight to D'Aul- 
ney, told him of La Tour's absence — of the weakness of 
the garrison ; whereupon he, collecting his forces, set sail 
for St. John's. He will capture the fort, get hold of the 
lady — if he can. But Madame was at her post, and knew 
what to do there. Aiming the big guns well, plying them 
briskly, she soon rendered his frigate unmanageable, and 
killed or wounded some thirty of his men. Warping his 
ship out of reach of gunshot, he refitted as well as he 
could, and sailed away ; and Madame has saved the fort 
for a season ; and all this time the husband, Sir Charles 
St. Etienne, Sieur de la Tour of France, Baronet of Nova 
Scotia, is in Boston, living with Mr. Maverick at Noddle's 
Island, walking round among the people of Boston, telling 
his story in a snuffling way, all through the winter. 

Methinks he had better cease snuffling, go home, and 



MADAME LA TOUR. 31 

go to work ; otherwise his story will become more and 
more pitiful. 

For now D'Aulney, having had time to recruit, pounces 
upon the lady again. This time he prevails ; though she 
fought bravely three days and three nights, and beat him 
off; but on the fourth day (Easter Sunday) he bribed one 
of the garrison, " a Swiss who was on guard that day," 
while the others were reposing after their hard day's work, 
and got inside the walls. But even then she bore herself 
gallantly, and surrendered at the last only on condition that 
the lives of all within the fort should be spared. This 
condition D'Aulney shamefully broke, and hanged them 
all save two — one, whom he made the executioner of the 
rest ; the other, Madame La Tour herself, who was obliged 
to stand, with a halter round her neck, and witness the sad 
sight. The woman had borne much ; this she could not 
bear ; within three weeks of that shameful day " she died 
of grief and vexation." *' Her little child and gentlewoman 
were sent away into France." Was it a daughter of this 
little one, who, in the next century, under the name of Aglate 
La Tour,* by management and for small considerations, 
got quitclaims from all the other heirs of Charles St. 
Etienne de la Tour, and then sold to the English govern- 
ment all her right, title, and interest in and to the Prov- 
ince of Nova Scotia for two thousand guineas ? 

* See Douglass's Summary, vol. i. 327. 



32 LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 



CHAPTER VII. 

LA TOUR'S TROUBLES AND DOUBLES, AND FINAL 
DISAPPEARANCE. 

La Tour, after his return from Massacliusetts with that 
letter to D' Aulney, being all he could get, seems • to have 
lost head — all the head he ever had. Leaving his strong- 
hold, as we said, in keeping of his wife, he went drifting 
about, asking all people in a whining way to assist him. 
Great part of the winter of 1644-5, all through the spring, 
and into the summer, he was at Boston, living with Mr. 
Maverick on Noddle's Island, telling his story, and peti- 
tioning the court for assistance. Edward Gibbons, who is 
now Sergeant-Major Gibbons, is greatly interested in the 
fate of Monsieur's petitions ; he has received no proceeds 
of furs shipped to England, nor can he hear of any that 
are like to come ; and as the spring months wear away he 
becomes urgent for payment, or at least for security. At 
last we note that he has got something — a paper drawn 
out in due form, dated May 13, 1645, whereby "Sir 
Charles St. Stephens, Lord of La Tour in France, and 
Knight Baronet of Nova Scotia," (rich in titles still,) con- 
veys to " Sergeant-Major Gibbons" all of his (La Tour's) 
possessions in Nova Scotia, to secure payment of the sum 
of two thousand and eighty-four pounds sterling, now due 
to him, the said Major Gibbons ; carefully excluding, how- 
ever, from this mortgage the "great frigott riding in Bos- 
ton harbour ; " which may be the ship Clement, that was 
here before. A great frigate lying so long in Boston har- 
bor, and Madame keeping the fort at St. John's with a 



LA tour's troubles AND DISAPPEARANCE. 33 

handful of men ! keeping the fort, or trying to keep it, 
and fighting bravely till the end come. 

Finally, however, Monsieur, telling his story over and 
over again till it becomes a weariness to the ears of men, 
has an interesting conclusion to add to it ; for news comes 
from Acadia that his fort at St. John's has fallen to D'Aul- 
ney, " with jewels, plate, household furniture, ordnance, 
and other movables, valued at ten thousand pounds ster- 
ling ; " which valuation, I think, is made by Monsieur him- 
self. And now, his story having become hopeless as well 
as pitiful, he, despairing of aid in Boston, sails away to 
make appeal elsewhere. Major Gibbons, who holds a 
mortgage, is no longer gay or wealthy, being "now quite 
undone." 

In the winter of 1645-6 La Tour was again in Boston; 
having been, since the preceding July, in Newfoundland 
trying his fortune with Sir David Kirk, who is governor 
there. La Tour says that Sir David received him cour- 
teously, and promised him assistance ; but at last would 
give him nothing save a small vessel to carry him to Bos- 
ton — something to take him away. What story La Tour 
told to his Boston friends, this time, nobody knows. Judg- 
ing by the result of it, no one need doubt that it was a 
story of great profits to be made in trading for furs in 
Canada, or thereabout ; for we find that he got merchan- 
dise for a trading voyage to the East, from Major Gibbons 
to the value of two hundred and sixteen pounds ; from Mr. 
Maverick still more: these two shipped merchandise in 
the " barque Planter," intrusting it to Monsieur La Tour, 
who, promising large returns, sailed away in this bark, 
of which the master is a " stranger," and the crew partly 
French, partly English. Off Cape Sable, Monsieur con- 
spired with the master and his own Frenchmen, and forced 



34 LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 

out the other five Englishmen — "himself shooting one 
of them in the face with a pistol." These Englishmen, 
wandering about on the shore in winter some fifteen days, 
were at last sent by some Indians in a shallop to Boston, 
where they told their story to Major Gibbons, Mr. Mav- 
erick, and others. Governor Winthrop said : " It appeared 
(as the Scripture saith) that there is no confidence in an 
unfaithful or carnal man." To which Major Gibbons in 
his heart said, Amen. 

So this Frenchman, grown desperate, has become a kind 
of pirate, and has gone away to parts unknown — to Hud- 
son's Bay and elsewhere, trading with the Indians, and 
keeps in the dark some five years. But in the year 1650, 
he, wherever he was, heard news, good news — that his 
old enemy, D'Aulney, is dead. Then he lifted up his 
head, and looked again to the Acadian world as his " oys- 
ter," which he with "sword will ope ; " with sword, or in 
a prettier way, for he has a scheme in his head. Sailing 
straightway to Port Royal, he calls on Jane Moten, Ma- 
dame D'Aulney. Gentle reader, figure to yourself Mon- 
sieur La Tour when he called that day, dressed in his 
best, on the widow D'Aulney Charnizay, and made his 
best bow. With great complaisance of manner, he has 
an under look of truculence, which, if there be call for it, 
he will turn up. After a rather delicate preamble, touching 
on matters and things in Acadia, he makes distant allusion 
to her dear deceased husband, — so distant that the dead 
lion seems a hundred years away, — and then produces 
himself, a living — what shall we call him ? He brings 
forward his title papers ; asserts his claim to Acadia ; 
which, if need be, he will maintain with his sword. Then 
he softly hints that there is a better way ; he is a man be- 
reaved ; she a disconsolate widow ; their respective losses 



LA TOUK's troubles AND DISAPPEAKANCE. 35 

have made chasms in the being of each, which they, rush- 
ing together, can fill ; and thus uniting their own dear 
selves, unite also forts, fishing stations, and wide tracts of 
land in Acadia. Will Madame consider it ? Madame 
listens, considers, flutters a little in her weeds, and gives 
such answer as beseems a disconsolate widow ; then she 
considers again, flutters, and says — yes. There is a wed- 
ding and a honeymoon ; and Monsieur La Tour, after this 
his chef-d'a3uvre, thinks that halcyon days have come 
at last. 

And, indeed, for some three years now he seems to live 
quietly enough, and to have no troubles, or none that we 
hear of. True it is that Joshua Scottow comes from Mas- 
sachusetts twice, dunning him, presenting Major Gibbons's 
account, which has now run up to four thousand pounds 
sterling ^' and more, including interest ; but this is a small 
trouble, not worth mentioning, as the claimant comes un- 
armed. 

Madame, the new wife, has been honored by the king 
with letters patent "^^ confirmatory to herself, and heirs, of 
the original grant to her deceased husband ; and La Tour 
himself got once more letters patent from the King of 
France, dated in 1651, confirming him in possesion and 
government of Acadia ; said letters setting forth that the 
said La Tour has used all his powers for forty-two years 
in the conversion of savages to the Christian religion in 
Acadia, and by his courage and valor driven foreign here- 
tics from the forts of that country. With such papers, and 
the rival houses now united, La Tour lives very quietly 
there at St. John's, superintending his fisheries, trading 
with the natives, till another creditor comes. This one, 

* See Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. vii. 3d Series. 



36 LA TOUR IN BOSTON. 

whose name is Le Borgne, comes armed. He, a creditor 
of D'Aulney, comes with authority to take possession of 
the widow's inheritance ; also with an arret against La 
Tour, who stands charged with the old crimes of disloyalty, 
of harboring heretics, &c. This Le Borgne carried things 
with a high hand there in Acadia ; and after ousting Mon- 
sieur Denys at Chedabucto, (who still in print bewails it,) 
prepared to attack La Tour at St. John's. And here one 
may give words to a little virtuous indignation against the 
Company of New France, Cardinal Richelieu, his most 
Christian majesty himself — the supreme governor of 
Acadia, whoever he may have been. Such supreme gov- 
ernor, granting all sorts of contradictory commissions and 
arrets, setting men together by the ears in a kind of blind- 
man's buflf, has sins to answer for. 

Le Borgne, we said, was strong, and carried matters 
with a high hand in Acadia ; but a stronger than he was 
in those days looking thitherward. Oliver Protector, think- 
ing that cession of Nova Scotia made by Charles the First 
without consideration, invalid, had a mind to relieve his 
New England colonies of troublesome Popish neighbors ; 
and, sending a fleet of ships with New England soldiers, 
he, in the year 1654, swept the French away from Nova 
Scotia — La Tour, Le Borgne, and the rest of them. 

Monsieur La Tour now disappears again for a time. 
Once more he emerges, and only once, far off in Old 
England, playing a new game, or the old one in a new 
place. Petitioning the government there, and setting forth 
his claim to Nova Scotia under the grant of Sir William 
Alexander ; showing the French arrets accusing him 
of harboring Huguenots, of alliance with foreign here- 
tics ; keeping out of sight that he has spent " forty-two 
years in converting savages to the Catholic religion" — in 



LA tour's troubles AND DISAPPEARANCE. 37 

all ways, skilfully concealing and revealing, he makes the 
most of his misfortunes and misdeeds. With some result ; 
for we find that he, with Thomas Temple and William 
Crowne, got, in 1656, a grant of that wide tract of lands 
comprised now in the Provinces of New Brunswick and 
Nova Scotia. Thereupon La Tour, selling out all his right, 
title, and interest therein, to Temple, disappeared, to 
emerge no more. 

Thus this dubious Frenchman, coming to us through 
dim, uncertain medium, was, for a time, troublesome to 
those noteworthy men, the fathers of New England ; and 
so raised himself into clear visibility. Then fading away 
in the distance into dimness again, he at last altogether 
vanishes in the fog of London; — and our historiette is 
ended, if not finished. 

Note.— The writer of the foregoing chapters would willingly cite volume 
and page in confirmation of his statements ; but his papers of reference are 
in a bad state, and he has had trouble enough with them. Besides the books 
already mentioned, the truth-seeking reader may look into Halliburton's 
Hist, of Nova Scotia, Williamson's Hist, of Maine, VTinthrop's Journal, 
Hutchinson's Massachusetts, Hubbard's New England, Hist, of the First 
Church, Hist, of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, Prince's 
Annals, Snow's Hist, of Boston. He may look into these books, and read 
a little more than is written therein, and also a little less, Winthrop's 
Journal, edited by James Savage, read so, is as interesting as the last new 
novel, and more profitable. 

4 



GEORGE BRUMMELL. 



PART I. 

A BiOGEAPHER, bringing a fellow-mortal to the notice 
and judgment of a discerning public, gives, or ought 
always to give, some account of his ancestors ; for thereby 
a public, thirsting for knowledge, learns somewhat of the 
kind and amount of capital the fellow-mortal had to start 
with, and can, therefore, after it has also learned what 
use he made of said capital, award praise or blame, as it 
surely will, with a tolerable degree of accuracy. In the 
present case, however, as in too many others, the account 
must be a meagre one ; and the public, sitting in the 
judgment seat, will do well to let mercy temper justice. 

The paternal grandfather of George Brummell " was 
in business in Bury Street, St. James, London, and may 
have been a confectioner, though I have no knowledge of 
such fact." * The profits of this business in many-colored 
sugar plums, or in other things, being insufficient for his 
wants, he posted on the walls of his house, or perhaps on 
the door of it, the words, " Apartments to Let ; " and 

* Life of George Brummell, commonly called Beau Brummell. By Cap- 
tain Jesse. Philadelphia : Carey & Hart. 1844. 

(39) 



40 GEOEGE BRUMMELL. 

this placard, in the beautiful handwriting of his son "Wil- 
liam, attracted the attention of Mr. Jenkinson, afterwards 
Lord Liverpool ; and he, being in want of such apart- 
ments as these, on inspection, proved to be, took pos- 
session. Mr. Jenkinson, who had then and always work 
in hand, employed this boy in copying papers, and gave 
him afterwards a clerkship in the treasury office. Lord 
North, the successor of Liverpool as Lord of the Treasury, 
finding that William Brummell with his talent of fair-and- 
ready writing, had also other talents to match it, made 
him his private secretary. This office he held for twelve 
years, from 1770 to 1782; and not this office only; 
for North, " the god of emolument," gave him also sev- 
eral others — the net annual income of all amounting to 
twenty-five hundred pounds. After Lord North's resigna- 
tion, William Brummell retired to the country at Doning- 
ton, and, in 1788, was high sherifi" for Berkshire. An 
active, industrious, social man, kind to others and not 
unmindful of himself, he prospered in worldly afiairs, and, 
apparently, deserved such prosperity. His wife, daughter 
of a Mr. Richardson who kept a lottery office, and *' one 
of the prettiest women of her day," gave to the world, on 
the 7th day of June, 1778, a remarkably well-shaped boy- 
babe, who was christened George Bryan Brummell, and, 
in course of time, came to be widely known as Beau 
Brummell, the man who " once ate a pea," and did other 
things equally remarkable. George Bryan Brummell early 
in life dropped the Bryan as ungenteel, and we will there- 
fore henceforth do the same. Pity we cannot give some 
account of his childhood ; but knowledge of it is altogether 
wanting ; and the question, Did the little Brummell make 
mud pies ? must remain without positive answer, though 
I guess he did not. He was surely a dapper little fellow 



GEORGE BRUMMELL. 



41 



in his first jacket and trousers, if not earlier; and he 
climbed no trees for birds' nests, though he perhaps 
pointed them out to his companions, and so came in for 
a share of the spoils. But the curious reader, Avho be- 
lieves " the child is father of the man," and would gladly 
know more, must content himself with this one anecdote : 
The little Brummell, on a visit to his aunt, cried bitterly 
because of inability to eat more apple-damson ; which, 
though small-looking, is not insignificant. 

In 1790 George went to Eton, and thence, three years 
later, to Oxford, and entered at Oriel College ; learning, 
at both places, what he had inclination for. Rough, out- 
of-door sports he avoided, and was early noted for those 
peculiarities by which he afterwards became famous — 
peculiarities of speech, dress, and deportment. Of his 
school days, as of his childhood, there is only a single 
anecdote. Between the Eton boys and the Windsor barge- 
men there was at that time a bitter feud ; and one day 
the boys, in multitude, caught one of these men alone on 
the bridge, and straightway set to work to throw him into 
the river. George, walking on the bridge at the time, 
came forward, and said, in quiet tones, to the excited 
boys : " My good fellows, don't send him into the river ; 
the man is evidently in a high state of perspiration, and 
it almost amounts to a certainty that he will catch cold." 
Whereupon the boys, with shouts of laughter, propelled 
the man along the bridge, and let him run, glad to escape 
so. At Oxford, as afterwards, Brummell was a pleasant, 
amusing companion, good-humored always, if not good- 
natured ; standing a little apart from his feUows — near, 
but rarely, if ever, in direct contact ; not a brother man at 
all, but only a far-away cousin. 

His mother, of whom we know only that she was one 
4* 



42 GEORGE BKUMMELL. 

of the prettiest women of her day, died in 1793, and 
his father in March, 1794, leaving about £65,000 for his 
children, three in number — William, older than George, 
and a daughter, younger. 

Immediately after his father's death, George left Oxford ; 
his whole term there being one year only, or even less. 
And now, George Brummell having finished his school 
education, or ended it, and being about to enter " the 
highest society," we will see what his outfit was : very 
imperfect English, a few phrases in French, some Latin, 
and a large stock of the gossip of the time, such as he 
could gather from his ccHilege companions, from news- 
papers, court journals, magazines, and novels ; and the 
things he could do were these : draw tolerably, dance 
perfectly, dress exquisitely, sing and chat pleasantly, and 
write vers de societe. Thus endowed, thus armed and 
equipped, he entered on high life in London, and rose 
rapidly to the top of it ; becoming, indeed, a wonderful 
autocrat, the autocrat of the Kingdom of Gentility. The 
above-named things he could do, and also one other thing : 
he could look all the world in the face — a most indis- 
pensable thing to a Brummell, a Cagliostro, and to all 
who would get much and give little. But before going 
farther with our story of the man, let us look a little 
into the time, for that too was peculiar ; and we will 
hope that in better times to come such a man can make 
less headway. 

The British colonies in America had declared inde- 
pendence, announced democratic doctrines, and achieved 
their triumphs. In France the culbute generale was 
under way, and Protestant Christendom was every where 
in commotion. In England, which had already had its 
Puritan revolution, and thereby a partial renovation, was 



GEORGE BE.UMMELL. 43 

more safety than elsewhere ; but there, too, was doubt 
and danger, and (to come nearer to our own little busi- 
ness) the genteel world of London city showed symptoms 
alarming, at least, to itself. Fox and his party, favorers 
of liberie, egalite, fraternite, affected carelessness, even 
slovenliness, in personal habits. But we can hope that 
the case of Lord Surrey, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, as 
reported by Wraxall, was an extreme one. " In cleanli- 
ness he was negligent to so great a degree that he rarely 
made use of water for bodily refreshment or comfort. He 
even carried the neglect of his person so far, that his 
servants were accustomed to avail themselves of his fits 
of intoxication for the purpose of washing him. On 
those occasions, being wholly insensible to all that passed 
around him, they stripped him as they would have done 
a corpse, and performed on his body the necessary ablu- 
tions. Nor did he change his linen more frequently than 
he washed himself. Complaining, one day, to Dudley 
North, that he was a martyr to the rheumatism, and had 
ineffectually tried every remedy for relief, * Pray, my 
lord,' said he, * did you ever try a clean shirt ? ' " This 
same Wraxall, after describing the Duke of Queensbury 
and his infamous life, says very quietly : " During the last 
years of his life, having reluctantly withdrawn from New- 
market, the clubs, and St. James, he passed his time with 
a few select friends, of which number I was frequently 
one." In these days, her grace, the celebrated Duchess 
of Devonshu-e, went to the hustings for Fox, and cajoled 
the greasy electors, buying votes even with kisses ; and 
the Duchess of Salisbury was equally busy, though not 
with equal success, electioneering for his opponent ; and 
some years later, the Duchess of Gordon was pitted against 
her Grace of Devonshire, on the regency question. This 



44 GEORGE BRUMMELL. 

Duchess of Gordon, who was sometimes whipper-in of 
ministers, had a sister, Lady Wallace, of great personal 
charms, who wrote a comedy called " The Ton, or Follies 
of Fashion;" which, in 1788, was performed three times 
at Covent Garden Theatre. " All the principal characters, 
male and female, were individuals of fashion easily recog- 
nized by those who knew the town." Lady Wallace's 
" whole life was a perpetual comedy." " I have seen her," 
says Wraxall, " habited as a man, attending the debates 
in the House of Commons, and seated in the gallery ap- 
propriated to strangers." Her comedy, " The Ton," which 
may still be read by the curious, is doubtless a caricature ; 
but under a caricature of fashionable life in London by 
such a hand, the reality is discernible ; and the features of 
it are not pretty. Thus high ladies came down from their 
place and took part in the common arena. In dress too, 
which is an outermost sign and symptom of much, a 
remarkable change took place just before Brummell's 
advent. 

In 1783 "every fashionable female's head-dress was 
elevated twelve or eighteen inches high, and formed a bar- 
barous assemblage of powder, pins, and other fantastic 
ornaments, piled on each other;" but ten years later all 
these heaps disappeared, and these same heads were round- 
ed a la guillotine. At that time, in Paris, it was the fash- 
ion to be ready for the stroke of the axe, and therefore in 
London we were ready too, apparently, almost really ; for 
fashion goes far, and is a wonderful thing. In 1785 Lord 
Surrey (just washed, I hope) proposed to lay a tax on hair- 
powder ; and Mr. Pitt, in reply, said : " The noble lord, 
from his high rank and the high office he holds, (Deputy 
Earl-Marshal of England,) might dispense, as he did, with 
powder ; but there were many individuals whose situations 



GEORGE BRUMMELX. 45 

compelled them to go powdered ; indeed, few gentlemen 
permitted their servants to appear before them unpow- 
dered." Nevertheless, the tax, a few years later, was laid, 
and the days of hair powder were numbered. " But 
though gradually undermined and perishing of an atrophy, 
dress never totally fell till the era of Jacobinism and of 
equality, in 1793 and 1794. It was then that pantaloons, 
cropped hair, and shoe-strings, as well as the total aboli- 
tion of buckles ai|d ruffles, together with the disuse of hair 
powder, characterized the men." " Perhaps, with all its 
encumbrances, penalties, and inconveniences, it will be 
found necessary, at some not very distant period, to revive, 
in a certain degree, the empire of dress." Certainly, Mr. 
Wraxall ; there can be no manner of doubt of it. . 

At this time, towards the close of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, Pitt and Fox were struggling for power ; George, 
Prince of Wales, was openly opposed to his father, the 
king ; and Carleton House was the centre of wide-spread 
extravagance and debauchery: to sum up the whole in 
one short sentence, this George, Prince of Wales, was 
accounted "the first gentleman of the age" in a land that 
had known a Walter Raleigh, a Philip Sidney. At this 
time, when the upper classes, acted on by a revolutionary 
uprising without, were tending towards suicide within, and 
had begun to ask themselves the alarming question, On 
what do we stand ? George Brummell appeared, and was 
welcome. If gentility pure and simple is our only basis, 
then this is the very man to make the foundation sure, and 
he is welcome indeed. 

And now, after these faint indications of the time, -we 
will go on with our story of the man, leaving other features 
of that time to come to light on the way. 

George Brummell was first introduced to the notice of 



46 GEORGE BRUMMELL. 

the Prince of Wales while he was a school boy at Eton ; 
probably by Fox or Sheridan, who were sometimes his 
father's guests at Donington, and had doubtless noted the 
boy's peculiarities. Subsequently, when Brummell, in 
1794, after the death of his father, came to London, so 
noteworthy did he appear, that a party was made for the 
express purpose of formally introducing this boy of sixteen 
to the Prince, who was fond of notorieties. At once he 
became a favorite, was gazetted for a cor^^etcy in the Tenth 
Hussars, the Prince's own regiment, at that time the most 
dashing one in the army, and found himself in the *' first 
society" of London. Two years later, Brummell was 
raised to a captaincy, and seemed on the way to higher 
military honors (of this kind) ; but, to the astonishment 
of the fashionable world, he sold out his commission and 
resigned. The reason he gave for it, whether the true one 
or not, is very characteristic ; the regiment, he said, is 
ordered to Manchester, a manufacturing town, where he 
cannot possibly exist. " Think of it, your Eoyal High- 
ness — Manchester! Manchester !'' His Royal Highness 
said : " Do as you please, Brummell — do as you please," 
and continued his favor. In 1799, a year after this resig- 
nation, Brummell came of age, and into possession of 
his patrimony, which, by accumulation in his minority, 
amounted to about thirty thousand pounds; and then, 
having means, he took a house, No. 4 Chesterfield Street, 
gave excellent little dinners to his noble friends, and gath- 
ered around himself all the appliances of fashionable life. 
He was a member of Brooke's Club, at that time a very 
exclusive one, where no man with any taint of vulgarity 
could get admittance ; for a single blackball was fatal. 
Alderman Combe was blackballed ; and Alderman Wood, 
twice Lord Mayor of London, succeeded only by persever- 



GEORGE BRUMMELL. 47 

ing application for twelve successive years. But this club 
fell somewhat from its high estate ; aldermen, lord mayors, 
and other kinds of working men got in ; and then Brum- 
mell and other exquisites founded Watier's. In this club 
were some literary men of the dandy type. Lord Byron 
says that he, Spencer, and Moore were members of it, and 
that it was " a superb club ; " but a short-lived one, it 
seems, for it lived too fast, and, by high play, soon ruined 
both itself and friends. Brummell at this time, and for long 
time, had man servants and maid servants, carriages and 
horses, all the fit appliances ; and the house No. 4 Chester- 
field Street was pretty enough. The master of it had ex- 
quisite taste, not in dress for the body only, but in other 
kinds of upholstery ; especially exquisite was his taste in 
snufi*-boxes. The Prince had perhaps a larger collection of 
these, and a more costly, but not a better. The man be- 
came famous, and we will therefore look at him and at him, 
but not much into him. He lived and moved altogether in 
the element of rich idleness, seeking amusement ; and his 
special region was the most exclusive circle of the genteel 
■world, where the problem at all times is, to make much of 
nothing gracefully ; and in this George Brummell was em- 
inently successful. Let no one mistake him for a vulgar, 
flashy dandy ; for in his best estate he was a really genteel 
man. Lord Byron speaks of his dress as " remarkable for 
a certain exquisite propriety ; " and one evidently intimate 
with him, probably Lord Alvanley, says: "He was the 
best dressed man of his day, and we should all have dressed 
like him if we could." Not at certain times and in certain 
places only, but always and every where, was he well 
dressed ; better dressed than any other ; and the whole 
man was in perfect keeping with this perfect dress. Many 
men have been genteel, and little else ; but he was genteel, 



48 GEOKGE BRUMMELL. 

and nothing else, and therefore deserving attention. In 
London drawing rooms, no man standing solely on personal 
merits was better known or more welcome than he. Of 
medium height, beautiful proportions, composed, quiet, 
graceful ; brown hair, small gray eyes, face longish, with 
forehead high and narrow ; the nose rather large and bold, 
bearing slight marks of the kick of a horse got in the Tenth 
Hussars ; the face on the whole good looking, but not re- 
markably handsome. But the figure ! the best figure in 
London, with the best dress on it ; distinguished by ex- 
treme care and neatness, without marked peculiarity in 
parts, but in the whole remarkable for an elegant harmony 
which was inimitable. The tie of his neckcloth, (always 
white,) which he perfected by untiring perseverance and 
patience, remained always the same ; for the foolish love of 
change, which leads often from good to bad, dwelt not 
with him. His dress was indeed a study ; and George, 
Prince of Wales, asked advice on this important matter 
of George, Prince of Beaux ; and often he would spend a 
morning in Chesterfield Street, taking lessons at the toilet 
of his friend. Sometimes, after a protracted sitting, the 
Prince (of Wales) would send away his horses and stay 
dinner ; and then the empty bottles were many. Thomas 
Moore (who will be of use to us more than once) says that 
his Royal Highness once shed tears (" blubbered," says 
Moore) when told that Brummell disapproved of the cut 
of a new coat which covered the royal back; which is 
probably an exaggeration of the real fact. 

Of George Brummell it may be said, as of Talleyrand, 
*' He was not a false man, though living in and on lies." 
He was a believer ; in gentility he believed with his whole 
soul, (such as it was ;) and he believed in himself : these 
two things, at bottom one and the same, he believed in, 



GEORGE BRUMMELL. 49 

and in nothing else in heaven or on earth. This firm, un- 
changing, exclusive faith is the secret of Brummell's suc- 
cess in genteel life. It concentrated all his thoughts and 
faculties on the narrow superficies of that life, and he saw- 
always distinctly what was there, because his attention was 
not attracted to any thing beyond or beneath it. Doubt, 
which troubles and perplexes so many of us, making our 
course devious and uncertain, dwelt not with him at all ; 
and therefore his assurance and audacity had no limits. 
And by that same faith, too, he got followers and believers. 
In a world through Avhich the most of us pass as through a 
museum, where the multitude and variety of things claim- 
ing attention distract attention from each, and prevent 
thorough study of any, a man can pass for what he gives 
himself out for, and believes himself without doubt to be. 
Brummell, therefore, was not pretentious ; he believed 
himself to be a gentleman; he gave himself out for a 
gentleman ; and the first society of London took him for 
a gentleman, not a little to its astonishment afterwards. 
We must say, therefore, that Brummell was not, properly 
speaking, a quack. He was a genuine being — of a kind ; 
one with real meaning in him, such as it was ; he was not 
only distinguished, but deserving of distinction ; like the 
devil, an ultimate of his kind. But let us come down a 
little, and call him, in the phrase of to-day, a representa- 
tive man. Peeping into the eighteenth century through this 
peculiar loop-hole, the life of Brummell, I feel inclined to 
say that Carlyle's verdict on it is according to law and fact. 
Assurance, audacity, indicating some kind of belief, if 
only belief in one's self, will start a man, and keep him 
going to some extent in all times ; but in such a time as 
that one, they will carry their possessor far, and keep him 
out of range of question. Of this kind of stufi" our adven- 

5 



50 GEORGE BRUMMELL. 

turer into high life in London had abundant stock. But 
instead of talking about the man, let us glance at some of 
the anecdotes of him, which are not without significance. 

That noted woman, Lady Hester Stanhope, with whom 
Brummell was on terms of intimacy, took him to task one 
day for his presumption, and exhorted him to bear himself 
more humbly. He replied: "My dear Lady Hester, if I 
were to do as you advise, do you think 1 could stand in the 
middle of the pit at the opera, and beckon to Lorn (Duke 
of Argyle) on one side, and to Villiers (Earl of Jersey) on 
the other, and see them come to me ? " 

Brummell has long passed in the world for a man full 
of affectations ; but proofs of it are wanting ; and a little 
study of the man shows quite the reverse of that. 

Walking in St. James Street, Brummell asked his com- 
panion. Lord Blank, what he called those things on his 
feet? "Why, shoes." " Shoes, are they?" said Brum- 
mell, stooping and looking at them doubtfully ; "I thought 
they were slippers." 

The Duke of Bedford, with a new coat on his back, 
asked Brummell' s opinion of it. Examining it in front, 
Brummell said: "Turn round." His grace, obedient, 
turned. Continuing the examination, and feeling the cloth 
with his thumb and forefinger, Brummell said, at last, very 
seriously : " Bedford, do you call this thing a coat ?" 

An acquaintance, expatiating on the beauty of the lakes, 
asked Brummell which of them he preferred. Turning 
his head with an imploring look to his valet, he said : 
" Robinson, which of the lakes do I admire ? " " Winder- 
mere, sir." "Ah, yes, Windermere — so it is — Win- 
dermere." 

These anecdotes do not indicate affectation, for they are 
in keeping with his whole life. Why bore me, (the man 



GEORGE BRUMMELL. 51 

seems to say,) why bore me with lakes and mountains ? 
They come not into drawing rooms, and have no place in 
the genteel world ; but coats and shoes do come, and have 
a place there, and they therefore are of interest to me. 
The man who had a silver spitting dish, and said : "It is 
impossible for a gentleman to spit in clay," could find little 
to admire in our common earth, over which any rough- 
shod boor can tramp at will. 

" There is," says one, " a painful class of persons sta- 
tioned on the confines of the Kingdom of Gentility to 
prevent the encroachments of Grocerdom and Grazierdom." 
To this class Brummell did not belong, but to a higher ; 
not a mere sentinel he, but captain, rather, of detective 
police ; and an honest one. In his sarcasms he spared 
neither high in rank nor low, and was indeed most severe 
on the highest ; for he was no fawning sycophant, but dealt 
equal justice to every deviator from the strait and nar- 
row way. 

A Duchess, bringing her young daughter out at Almack's, 
said to her : "Do you see that gentleman near the door, 
speaking now to Lord Blank ? " " Yes, I see him : who is 
he ? " "A person, my dear, who will probably come and 
speak to us ; and if he enters into conversation, be careful 
to give him a favorable impression of you, for he is the 
celebrated Mr. Brummell." Yes, that is the celebrated 
Mr. Brummell ; a remarkably well-dressed man, of quiet, 
rather dignified demeanor ; standing near the door apart 
from the crowd, as is his wont. He is not yet Beau Brum- 
mell, a by-word in all lands. 

Of Brummell's witty sayings, which are not of a high 
order, we will give two or three specimens. 

In an unseasonable summer he was asked if he had 
ever known such a one. He replied : " Yes, last winter." 



52 GEORGE BEIJMMELL. 

A grave minister of state explaining to him the opera- 
tion of the income tax at the time it was proposed, he 
said : " Then I see I must retrench in rose-water for my 
bath." 

Proposing a trip to Brighton, he said : " Come to Brigh- 
ton, my dear fellow ; let us be off to-morrow ; we will eat 
currant tart and live on chintz and salt water/' 

The man's wit, like much else that calls itself wit, is, 
rather, oddity of thought or expression ; not a reasonable 
response, but an unexpected one ; approaching absurdity, 
but stopping short of it ; not carrying forward the current 
train of thought, but throwing it off the track, and up- 
setting it ; such as is used by wise men only to put an end 
to matters that are tending to mischief. We, who know 
something of Brummell, can guess what his talk was ; for 
the most part lively nothings, as " chintz and saltwater;*' 
the light, bantering talk of saloons, where many are con- 
gregated and all must speak ; but if the theme happened, 
at any time, to be a high or a wide one, Brummell, if he 
spoke at all, brought the matter home to his own little self 
or little life, as in " rose-water for my bath." 

George Brummell being eminently genteel, it follows, al- 
most as a matter of course, that he was not polite. The 
union of extreme gentility with genuine politeness is diffi- 
cult, if not impossible ; for the genteel man is mindful 
always of himself, while the polite man is mindful of oth- 
ers. When Dr. Johnson, his outward man not in the best 
trim, insisted on attending his lady visitors to their car- 
riages, he was surely not genteel ; nor was the oM bear 
altogether wrong in saying, *' Sir, I think myself a very 
polite man." True politeness springs from reverence — 
one of the noblest qualities of man ; reverence for the 
image of God, be that image in high station or in low. 



GEORGE BRUMMELL. 53 

In this pugnacious Avorld there have been many quar- 
rels : one of the most famous is that of the two Georges. 
The origin of this quarrel, as of most others, is involved in 
obscurity. Too often we mistake the mere occasion of an 
event for its cause, and "history teaching by examples " 
makes many blunders ; therefore let us be careful here. 
The cause of the rupture between George of Wales and 
George Brummell lay in the intrinsic difference of the two 
men. The younger George was by nature and culture 
cleanly, a lover of decency in all its forms ; genteel in every 
thing, even in his vices. His one test of all men, high or 
low, was gentility ; he was in fact a sectary, narrow, big- 
oted, exclusive. But the other George was a gross debau- 
chee, governed by his appetites ; his test of men this, — 
Can they be serviceable to a Prince of Wales ? Fox could 
be serviceable, and Sheridan ; a Colonel Hanger, and a 
Marquis of Hertford ; and his female servants \vere many ; 
tempted to serve, all of them, by the many uses to which a 
royal individual can be put. A hard task and a bad bar- 
gain it was to the best of them, and not good to any. 
This Prince, a specious, showy man, built a pavilion at 
Brighton, emblematic of himself, and did many foolish 
things, but rarely, if ever, a wise one. This George de- 
sired, among other things, distinction in genteel circles ; 
and, as we have seen, he took lessons of the other for that 
purpose in Chesterfield Street. The tutor, a thorough-going 
man in his department, found his pupil essentially want- 
ing, and soon grew contemptuous. 

Of one of " the Prince's friends," Colonel Hanger, (not 
mentioned by the Reverend George Croly,) we have a word 
or two to say. 

George Hanger, of respectable English parentage, was 
at school at Eton ; afterwards at Gottingen ; and learned 
5^^ 



54 GEORGE BRUMMELL. 

much at both places that was not in the books. His school 
days over, he spent two years at Hanover and Hesse Cassel ; 
and once saw the Great Frederick review his army. He 
came home to England, and was an officer in the Foot- 
guards there. Disgusted by slowness of promotion, he 
resigned, and took service with the Landgrave of Hesse 
Cassel. He fought against us here in America, in our war 
of independence ; at first, as captain in the Hessian Yager 
corps, and then as major in Tarle ton's corps, which har- 
ried the South. He came near death's door by sickness ; 
bones coming through the skin : but the skin grew over 
again, and, when the war ended, he was treated " with 
the most perfect respect, attention, and politeness by 
the leading families in Philadelphia." Thereupon, well 
pleased, he got across the water ; staying a while at Calais, 
out of the way of his creditors, who were many always. 
He ventured across the Channel too soon ; and, on the 
other side of it, got into the King's Bench — pretty name 
for a prison : but he disliked the thing, and said much in 
disparagement. He got out of it, and became equerry to 
his Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, advising him in 
affairs of the turf, and assisting him in other affairs. He 
was also recruiting officer for the East India Company, 
and a successful one, having much experience in the ways of 
the world. An active, shifty, audacious man, he rose often, 
but fell again always ; being without basis of any kind ex- 
cept courage. He Avas not inclined to gambling with dice, 
nor to intemperance in strong drink ; and there are, per- 
haps, other vices he was not inclined to. The only feature 
of his face, distinctly visible at this present time, is his long 
nose, with which he scented pleasure afar. He wrote a 
book entitled " The Life, Adventures, and Opinions of 
Colonel George Hanger," and published it, and says 



GEORGE BRUMMELL. 55 

in it of his Royal Highness : " For above sixteen years 
I have had the honor of his protection and acquaintance ; 
it is hard indeed if I did not know him in so long a pe- 
riod of time, when I have viewed him in every stage ; 
in health, on the bed of sickness, in convivial and in 
serious hours ; " and, " I would select him above all 
mankind for a companion and friend." In the year 1800 
this colonel was " a coal merchant, with an annual sal- 
ary ; " and he may be alive yet, for he was a tough one. 
Of Colonel Hanger so much ; but of the Marquis of Hert- 
ford, and of the women, who were many, let us say noth- 
ing or little. 

The truth is, that Brummell, a decent man, and a wor- 
shipper of gentility, could not tolerate this Prince and his 
friends, though he tried hard to do it ; for manifest benefits 
result from the favor of a Royal Highness who can run in 
debt to the amount of near a million pounds sterling, and 
get it paid from the national treasury. But even such 
benefits could not tempt Brummell to toleration of sins 
against gentility. Herein lay the cause of the quarrel; 
and the immediate occasion of it is unimportant. The 
" George-ring-the-bell " story Brummell always pronounced 
a falsehood ; and it is in itself improbable ; but there 
were, it seems, an accumulation of ofi'ences on the part of 
Brummell. For one thing, he — to his honor be it said — 
always refused to court the favor of Mrs. Fitzherbert ; 
and she, therefore, became his enemy. In London, at 
Carleton House, or elsewhere, there was a burly porter 
known as Big Ben ; and when the Prince and Mrs. Fitz- 
herbert grew fat, Brummell spoke of them as Our Ben 
and Benina ; which, repeated again and again, would 
make trouble enough. Be all this as it may, Brummell's 
bearing after the quarrel is really noteworthy. He said of 



56 GEORGE BRUMMELL. 

the Prince : "I made him what he is, and I can unmake 
him " — which boast, referring altogether to the genteel 
Morld, had not been a vain one if he had had cash enough. 
On all occasions, when the two men met, Brummell was 
imperturbable, uncompromising. We said Brummell could 
look all the world in the face ; and the reader shall see 
him look into that of his Royal Highness. On egress from 
the opera, Brummell, pressed backward by the crowd, came 
inadvertently almost into contact with his enemy. When 
one of the Prince's suite tapped Brummell on the shoulder 
he turned sharply round, and found himself face to face 
with the fat man. A bystander says: "I watched him 
with intense curiosity, and observed that his countenance 
did not change in the slightest degree ; nor did his head 
move : they looked straight into each other's eyes ; the 
Prince evidently amazed and annoyed. Brummell, how- 
ever, did not quail, or show the least embarrassment ; he 
receded quietly, backing step by step, till the crowd closed 
between them, never once taking his eyes off those of the 
Prince." This man does not fluctuate ; he is full of faith, 
as we said ; and the small gray eyes are steady always. 

The best of all these stories is that of the " fat friend ; " 
which, often told before, must be told here once again. 
After a successful run at hazard, Brummell, Lord Alvanley, 
Sir Harry Mildmay, and Henry Pierrepont gave a ball at 
the Argyle Rooms, in July, 1813 ; which Brummell, by his 
ready wit, made famous. The Prince Regent, who had not 
been invited, sent a message intimating a wish to be pres- 
ent ; and an invitation was therefore sent in the names of 
all the managers. When the approach of the Prince was 
announced, they, each with a wax light in hand, arranged 
themselves to receive him ; Mildmay and Pierrepont, one 
on each side of the door of entrance ; and Alvanley, with 



GEORGE BRUMMELL. 57 

Brummell opposite, a little farther within the room. The 
terms on which Brummell stood with the Prince were well 
known, and there was a hush of expectation. His Royal 
Highness, as he came in, said civil words to Pierrepont, 
and then a few to Mildmay on the other side ; advancing, 
he spoke briefly to Alvanley, and then, turning, he looked 
full at Brummell without the slightest sign of recognition, 
as though they were utter strangers. Brummell, at once 
accepting the proff'er of strangership, said, across to the 
opposite manager, and loud enough for the Prince and 
others to hear : " Alvanley, who is your fat friend ? " Me- 
thinks, "the first gentleman of the age" had to consider 
his ways that night. 

Brummell being here perhaps at his highest point of 
culmination, we will give some further evidence of his 
standing in the first society of London. At Caen, in his 
last days, he destroyed all papers then in his possession, 
and the following only escaped by accident : — 

WoBURN Abbey, November 10. 

My dear Brummell : 

By some accident, which I am unable to account for, 
your letter of Wednesday did not reach me till yesterday. 
I make it a rule never to lend my box, but you have the 
entree libre whenever you wish to go there, as I informed 
the box-keeper last year. I hope Beauvais and you will 
do great execution at Up-Park. I shall probably be there 
shortly after you. 

Ever jj^ours sincerely, 

Bedford. 

Up-Park was the seat of Sir Henry Featherstonhaugh ; 
and at Belvoir and Cheveley, seats of the Duke of Rut- 



58 GEORGE BKUMMELL. 

land, Brummell was a frequent and welcome visitor. That 
he was a welcome visitor in many high places there can 
be no doubt. Some of the wiser sort might smile a little 
at his peculiarities, as Lady Hester Stanhope does in the 
following letter ; but all courted his favor, for in matters 
of gentility he was the bright exemplar. 

August 30. 

If you are as conceited as formerly, I shall stand accused 
of taking your groom to give me an opportunity of writing 
to you for his character. All the inquiry I wish to make 
upon this subject is, to be informed whether you were as 
well satisfied with James Ell when you parted with him, 
as w'hen he had Stiletto under his care. If so, I shall 
despatch him, at the end of next week, with my new pur- 
chases, to Walmer, where I am going very shortly. You 
may imagine I am not a little happy in having it in my 
power to scamper on British ground, although I was ex- 
tremely pleased with my tour, and charmed with Italy. 

I saw a good deal of your friend Capel at Naples. If 
he fights the battles of his country at sea as well as ho 
fights yours by land, he certainly is one of our first com- 
manders. But of him you must have heard so full an 
account from Lord Althorp, — for they were inseparable, 
— that I will only add, he was as yet unsuccessful in the 
important research after a perfect snufi-box when I left 
Italy. What news the last despatch may have brought 
upon this subject, I am ignorant of, but take it for 
granted you are not ; as in all probability the Phoebe was, 
by your interest, appointed .to the Mediterranean station 
for three years, to accomplish this grand and useful dis- 
covery. Should it prove a successful one, Capel, on his 
return, will of course be made Admiral of the White for 



GEOKGE BRUMMELL. 59 

the signal service he has rendered to coxcombality. I met 
with a rival of yours in affectation, upon the continent — 
William Hill. I fear it will be long ere this country will 
again witness his airs, as he is now a prisoner. This, per- 
haps, you are glad of, as the society of statues and pictures 
has infinitely improved him in this wonted qualification, 
and therefore rendered him a still more formidable com- 
petitor. 

Hester L. Stanhope. 

The " Walmer" mentioned in this letter was the official 
residence of Mr. Pitt, (Lady Hester's uncle,) as Warden 
of the Cinque Ports. Lord Althorp was afterwards Earl 
Spencer. Capel, the Honorable Sir Thomas Bladen Capel, 
K. C. B., youngest son of the fourth Earl of Essex, was 
signal lieutenant of Nelson's ship, the Vanguard, at the 
battle of the Nile ; and he was on our American coast, in 
the Hogue, from 1812 to the conclusion of the war. Wil- 
liam Hill was William Noel Hill, second son of the first 
Lord Berwick. The end of Lady Hester's letter, and 
indeed the main body of it, forgets the beginning. To 
inquire about a groom, a few lines had been enough. The 
tone throughout is familiar — that of an old acquaintance ; 
and under the good-humored banter there are traces of 
kindly feeling and esteem. Lady Hester was no fool, 
though the family peculiarities, not finding good play- 
room in a woman, drove her to that life in the East ; 
and her letter is good evidence of the estimation in which 
he was held by the graver and wiser sort ; but the greater 
number were not grave, still less were they wise, and 
Brummell was lord of a host. 

To what extent he acted the part of the Good Samar- 
itan to those who fell by the wayside, is now unknown ; 



60 GEORGE BRUMMELL. 

but that one young lady, in exceeding great trouble, was 
grateful to the celebrated Mr. Brummell when he acted 
such part towards her, appears from the following letter : — 

Wednesday Morning. 

I am more obliged to you than I can express for your 
note. Be assured that your approbation of my conduct 
has given me very sincere pleasure. This is the only 
means I have of telling you so, for I am in such disgrace 
that I do not know if I shall be taken to the play. In 
any case I shall be watched ; therefore accept my most 
cordial thanks, and believe that I shall remember your 
good nature to me on this occasion, with gratitude, to the 

end of my life. does not know how unkindly I have 

been treated, but is more affectionate than ever, because 
he sees I am unhappy. We did not arrive in town till 
seven, last night ; therefore no play. To-morrow they go 
to Covent Garden ; perhaps I may be allowed to be of the 
party. Pray do not neglect my drawing. You would 
make me very happy by lending me the yellow book 
again ; the other I don't dare ask for, much as I wish 
for it. Adieu. 

I shall be steady in my opinion of you, and always 
remain 

Yours, very sincerely, 

Geokgiana a. F. Seymour. 

*' Miss Seymour," says Captain Jesse, " was afterwards 
Lady C. B k ; " which information may be more use- 
ful to others than it is to me. On her letter there is, in 
Brummell's own handwriting, this indorsement : " This 
beautiful creature is dead." Yes, she is dead, and so are 
the others — all dead, or no longer beautiful. But there 



GEORGE BKUMMELL. 61 

is a new bevy, and will be another ; they come upon the 
istage and dance a little, and then they go. 

That famous ball, where the fat friend appeared, was, 
we said, given after a successful run at hazard, and Brum- 
mell was then in a bad way, though he held his head high. 
That £30,000, enough for many a man, was altogether 
insufficient for one like him. It had been going fast, and 
was almost, if not quite, gone. The wonder with some 
seems to be that Brummell, acquainted with many rich 
ladies, and having therefore opportunity, did not marry 
a fortune ; but there were many difficulties in the way. 
The man, with his three daily toilets, each hours long, 
and his extremely exclusive habits, could not think a wife 
desirable ; and if he, in want of cash, did bethink him of 
marriage, where could he find a woman foolish enough to 
take him for her lord and master. With many women he 
had some acquaintance, but of womanhood absolutely no 
knowledge ; for only he who is himself possessed of man- 
hood, can appreciate its counterpart, womanhood. 

" I could not love thee, dear, so much, 
Loved I not honor more." 

That women could be found to flirt with a Beau Brum- 
mell is not perhaps remarkable ; but when even such 
women take it into their hearts, or heads rather, to marry, 
they do, for the most part, prefer men for that purpose. Of 
love, Brummell had so little, that he could not even feign 
it successfully. Of this, his letters to women are sufficient 
proof. The style of them is abominable — obscure, con- 
fused, always stilted, or high-heeled. One of them we 
will place here — not by any means the worst of the fifty 
to be found in Captain Jesse's book. 



62 george brummell. 

My dear Lady Jane : 

With the miniature, it seems, I am not to be trusted 
even for two pitiful hours ; my own memory must be, 
then, my disconsolate expedient to obtain a resemblance. 
As I am unwilling to merit the imputation of committing 
myself by too flagrant a liberty in retaining your glove, 
which you charitably sent at my head yesterday, as you 
would have extended an eleemosynary sixpence to the 
supplicating hat of a mendicant, I restore it to you ; and 
allow me to assure you that I have too much regard and 
respect for you, (whatever appearances may be against 
me,) to have entertained, for one treacherous instant, the 
impertinent intention to defraud you of it. You are very 
angry, perhaps irreparably incensed against me, for this 
petty larceny. I have no mitigation to offer but that of 
frenzy. But we know that you are an angel visiting these 
sublunary spheres, and therefore your first quality should 
be that of mercy. Yet you are sometimes wayward and 
volatile in your seraphic disposition ; though you have no 
wings, still you have weapons, and these are, resentment 
and estrangement from me. With sentiments of the deep- 
est compunction, I am always your miserable slave, 

George Brummell. 

The Lady Jane , Harley Street. 

Did Lady Jane ever throw a glove at that man again ? 
I hope not. 

Instead of marrying a fortune, which would have been 
so pleasant in his time of need, Brummell had to trust to 
luck — most illusive of things, which comes surely to 
nothing, or worse. Throw dice continually for years, the 
stake always the same, and the winnings and losses, very 
discrepant at the outset from day to day, will yet, in the 



GEOKGE BRUMMELL. 63 

aggregate at the end, balance each other ; and so the busi- 
ness comes to nothing ; but deduct from the gains the 
costs of an expensive life, and then the losses cannot be 
met ; and thus the matter comes to worse. At Brooke's 
and at Watier's Brummell was more and more at the haz- 
ard table, which was injurious to him in more than one 
way ; for it damaged, among other things, his gentilitv, to 
which great excitement, bursting up the gilded and lac- 
quered surface, is apt to be fatal. There were scenes like 
the following, in which some of the slang of a fashionable 
club comes to light. 

Among the players at Brooke's one night was Alderman 
Combe, a great brewer, and then Lord Mayor of London ; 
who, though blackballed at first, had at last, by persever- 
ance, got in. At the hazard table, Brummell, who was 
caster, said to the great brewer : " Come, Mashtub, what 
do you set?" "Twenty-five guineas." "Well, then, 
have at the mayor's pony only, and seven's the main." 
Brummell (says the story-teller) drove home the mayor's 
ponies twelve times in succession, (which is probably a 
lie ;) then, rising and pocketing the money, he said : 
" Thank you, alderman ; in future I shall never drink any 
porter but yours." The brewer, who in a steadfast way 
had earned his money, and had risen to be Lord Mayor, 
could not be put down so, and he replied: " I wish, sir, 
that every other blackguard would tell me the same." The 
celebrated Mr. Brummell was evidently at this time in a 
way to lose his celebrity ; for his need of cash had not 
only brought him into contact with mash-tubs, but had 
made him forgetful of what was due to himself. Sums of 
twenty-five guineas at this club were only ponies ; for play 
ran high there then ; and Brummell, whose patrimony had 
disappeared, did not bethink him of any providence, but 



64 GEORGE BKUMMELL. 

trusted in his day of need to luck ; from which we may 
safely infer that the man was an infidel. Fashionable 
clubs were not good things then, and many better things 
can be found now. At Brooke's the Marquis of Hertford 
rattled the dice, and found a kind of profit in it ; as bad 
men only are apt to do. Charles James Fox came in often, 
ancLstaid late ; losing his "last shilling," he could lay his 
head down on the table and sleep ; waking from his nap 
as good as he was before he was ruined ; or he could go 
quietly home and solace himself with a book, when friends 
were apprehensive of suicide. Richard Brinsley Sheridan 
came in sometimes ; but he tarried not long ; there is little 
ingenuity in the throwing of dice, and he loved other kinds 
of excitement better. The Duke of Queensberry, patri- 
arch of the tribe, " whose business it is to instruct the 
people " of it, unable to move himself in his latter years, 
was brought in by his servants and laid on a couch ; there, 
outstretched, his worn-out frame had still life enough in it 
to watch with interest the turns of the game, or to take a 
part in it by proxy. Many came in there hopeful, and 
went out hopeless ; foolish men at their coming in, and at 
their going out ; foolish, the most of them, always. 

We note here, with some interest, that Brummell had a 
remarkable sixpence — a sixpence with a hole in it, given 
him long ago by a gypsy woman, or other woman or man, 
with a charge to be careful of it, and an assurance that 
thus all should go well with him. A very convenient reg- 
ulator of events this, a kind of providence that can be put 
into the breeches pocket, and, by buttoning, kept there. 
Nevertheless, such sixpence is a dangerous possession. 
Brummell's assurance and audacity, springing, perhaps, in 
part from this sixpence, stood him in good stead and car- 
ried him far -— in the end, too far ; for he who marches by 



GEORGE BRUMMELL. 65 

rapid steps to his goal is apt to overmarch, and Lady Hes- 
ter's counsel was good. Lorn and Villiers, beckoned to 
too often, would at last decline the honor, and refuse to 
come ; which would be equivalent to a loss of the sixpence. 
But he did, it appears, actually lose this precious coin — 
paid it away to a coachman, or in some way lost it. He 
searched diligently, but could never find it : he advertised, 
offering a reward for it ; but though many a sixpence with 
a hole in it was brought to him, never that one. Long 
afterwards, at Calais, he was wont to say that all his mis- 
fortunes dated from that sorrowful day. Could we date 
that loss, and other events, our task would be pleasanter 
and more profitable ; but Captain Jesse's book, which is 
our main resource for material, is a confused one, almost 
dateless ; made up, in the London part of it, of gossip and 
rumor. The captain, however, seeking for facts in the 
London pool of high life, very evidently had to fish as with 
naked hooks, at noon of day, for trouts that had their eyes 
open. To go to the market of an enlightened public in a 
basket marked Brummell, was a fate to be avoided if pos- 
sible ; therefore the gallant captain, as we can see, had a 
hard time of it, and caught only gudgeons. But Thomas 
Moore, who kept a journal, (published since Jesse's book,) 
shall testify to some facts. The scene is a party at Lady 
Stafford's, date not given : " Wishing to have a peep at 
him, (Prince of Wales,) I got into the third tier of the 
circle around him, and found myself placed next to Brum- 
mell. Presently the persons before us cleared away, and 
left me and him exposed to the Regent and his party, con- 
sisting of Lady Hertford, Duchess of R , &c. Brum- 

mell being rather comical, I could not help laughing with 
him a little, which I felt at the moment was unlucky, both 
of us being such marked men, though in different ways, 

6* 



56 GEORGE BRUMMELL. 

with his Royal Highness ; and, accordingly, I found after- 
wards that the Duchess of R represented us every 

where as having stood impudently together quizzing the 
Regent. Brummell confirmed this to me, and added in his 
own way : * But she shall sufi^er for it ; I'll drive her from 
society ; she shall not be another fortnight in existence.' " 
Thus Tom Moore had his peep and got into trouble : and 
Brummell, I think, was already in it ; for the tone of his 
speech is petulant, vehement, indicating a will to do with- 
out the power ; and the sixpence with a hole in it was 
certainly not then in his pocket, but had gone travelling, 
like other sixpences. 

In one way and another the gambling profits had gone 
— in splendid balls, dinners, suppers, and the like, the 
many costs of an expensive life ; and the losses, which 
could not be met, remained as debts and became impera- 
tive. There were debts called " of honor," and one, as 
if seems, of dishonor — some division of spoils in which 
Brummell, in great need, took more than belonged to him 
by any law, even that of the gaming table. On the 16th 
day of May, 1816, towards evening, there was a corre- 
spondence showing some of the uses of the three per 
cents : — 

My dear Scrope : 

Lend me two hundred pounds ; the banks are all shut, 
and all my money is in the three per cents. 
Yours, 

George Brfmmeel. 

My dear George : 

'Tis very unfortunate, but all my money is in the three 
per cents. ^^ 

^^^' Scrope Dayies. 



GEORGE BEUMMEIiL. 



67 



And then Brummell, impassive, imperturbable as ever 
apparently, went to the opera, chatted there with his 
fashionable friends, as though the world still went well 
with him ; retired early, however, got into the chaise of 
a friend at the door, and drove out of town, where his own 
carriage waited for him. With the utmost speed — of 
which there was need, for bailiffs were making ready for 
him — he rattled away to Dover ; thence he ferried over 
to Calais, and never set foot on English ground again. 

And now, Brummell' s fashionable career being ended, 
we might leave him, there being henceforth nothing to 
show but the wrong side of the same thing ; but the life 
of this man is thoroughly consistent, of one piece from 
beginning to end, and we will therefore follow it to its 
close. 



PART II. 



Removed suddenly from the London Theatre, where 
were first-rate stock actors, brilliant audience, and gor- 
geous scenery, he, a first-rate star, though un pen passe 
perhaps, found himself plumped down at Calais, which 
ranks only as a roadside inn, or caravansary, where the 
pretenders to high life Avere, for the most part, only out- 
casts — men who had been hooted off the boards else- 
where. Here, in full costume, but to bare walls, he 
enacted over and over again, continually, the same part — 
that of Beau Brummell in genteel comedy ; which, under 
such circumstances, with only now and then a straggler 
to appreciate it, was indeed a ridiculous farce tending 
slowly towards a tragedy. Fourteen years Brummell lived 



68 GEOBGE BBUMMELL. 

there at Calais, his rooms being at " M. Leleux*s house, 
originally the Hotel d'Angleterre, on the right hand side 
of the Rue Royal, and only a few doors from the Hotel de 
Ville." Here he had drawing room, dining room, sleeping 
room ; and in them, buhl, or-molu, costly Sevres china, 
bronzes, japanned screens, snuff-boxes, fancy articles of 
many kinds. Gathering these together from Paris and 
elsewhere, arranging them in his rooms, was his first 
work ; keeping them in order, his second ; and there was 
for some years, it would seem, a good supply of cash. 
His way of life was this : Three toilets daily, each hours 
long, as of old ; and, in the interval between the first and 
second, dawdling over novels, brochures, English news- 
papers, (till he could learn to read French.) At four 
o'clock precisely — for the man was punctual — he went 
abroad with his terrier, Vick, or another, for a walk ; 
which was always a short one, for he had to dress for din- 
ner. This came to him from Dessaix Hotel, at six, and 
with it he took a liqueur glass of eau de vie, a bottle of 
Dorchester ale, and a bottle of Burgundy ; for, though 
the man was not intemperate, he liked to set himself up. 
Evenings he passed at the theatre, where he had a small 
box, — or in society, when he could find any to suit him. 
This, day after day, all the days of his life at Calais, was 
all that the man did ; for, indeed, what more could he do ? 
The first great commandment of his life had always been 
this : Thou shalt not work ; but thy man-servant and thy 
maid-servant shall, and thy ox and thy ass. And in obe- 
dience to this he had sacrificed much that ordinary men 
prize highly — as, for instance, military honors long ago. 
The commandment, a little irksome perhaps at first, had 
fastened itself on him and become imperative, and he 
obeyed it to the last. 



GEORGE BKUMMELL. 69 

There was, we said, no want of cash ; and Captain 
Jesse thinks old friends were generous, as doubtless they 
were. Perhaps some of them were frightened too, which 
would be still more productive of cash. In the December 
days of 1818 there was, according to Thomas Moore, 
among other gossip in London, this : " By the by, there 
is much talk in town of Brummell's memoirs. Murray 
told me, a day or two ago, that the report was, he had 
offered £5000 for the memoirs, but that the Regent had 
sent £6000 to suppress them. Upon Murray's saying 
he really had some idea of going to Calais to treat with 
Brummell, I asked him (Scrope Davies was by) what he 
would give me for a volume, in the style of the Fudges, 
on his correspondence and interviews with Brummell. 
* A thousand guineas,' he said, * this instant.' " Was this 
hush-money really paid ? This £6000, more or less, did 
probably come to Brummell from the prince, directly or 
indirectly, for the man could have told a story. Scrope 
Davies, who was by, is the same Scrope who said, " All 
my money is in the three per cents " — but didn't say 
how much. He was a noted man in London, and a wit. 
He cut his own throat so often that the doctor, called once 
again to sew it up, said: "There is no need of haste." 
And so Brummell lived at Calais, in wasteful extrava- 
gance ; for his old companions (afraid or not) were too help- 
ful at first. Englishmen high in rank, or in some way dis- 
tinguished, passing to and fro between London and Paris, 
stopped at Calais, and gave Brummell dinners, and often, 
in some way, cash : the Duke of Cumberland, the Duke 
of Gloucester, the Duke of Wellington, — dukes and lords 
many ; among others, Lord Westmoreland, who, passing 
in haste one day, invited Brummell to dine with him at 
three o'clock, Brummell asked to be excused ; he could 



70 GEORGE BRUMMELL. 

not possibly dine at that early hour. This, told at some 
dinner table in London, when the guests were warm with 
wine, reminding them that the once celebrated Mr. Brum- 
mell was still alive, and up to the mark, would be worth 
fifty guineas to him ; for who, at such a time, would 
grudge a guinea or two to such a man ? But in Septem- 
ber, 1821, Brummell's old friend and enemy, now King 
George the Fourth himself arrived. On his way from Eng- 
land to Hanover, he stopped a while at Calais to recruit, 
after the fatigues of a passage across the Channel. Riding 
abroad one day, the bloated King, with the big neckcloth, 
saw a figure on the street he could not forget, and said 
aloud : " Good God — Brummell ! " But he said nothing 
more, and did nothing to help ; which was unpretty in a 
king who had taken lessons. 

Of all these travellers, however, the one we see most 
distinctly is our chattering friend Thomas Moore, who, 
on the 8th day of November, 1821, "met Brummell (the 
exile of Calais) and had some conversation with him.'* 
We complained of a want of dates ; but now we are worse 
off than before. Here is a date indeed, but nothing hung 
to it. What was that remarkable conversation ? Poet 
Moore, who announced thus the fact, stopped short then. 
Did Moore sound the exile about the memoirs ? Probably 
he thought of a book in the style of the Fudges, for which 
he could get a thousand guineas. But we can only guess 
now, for the principals, Moore and Brummell, have both 
escaped, broken jail, and gone beyond the limits ; and 
there were no witnesses save one named Vick, and he 
too has become a shadow. One question troubles me 
here : What could be done in another world with a Beau 
Brummell? But "his faithful dog shall bear him com- 
pany." 



GEORGE BRUMMELL. 



71 



A year later, Moore was again at Calais, and made a 
more satisfactory entry in his journal : " Called on Brum- 
mell — saw his fine toilet (which the king gave him in his 
days of favor) set out in a little bedroom eight feet by 
nine." Moore, it appears, got into the Beau's bedroom 
this time, being an old acquaintance, and always inclined 
to peep. 

But, indeed, the comedy began soon to be a farce ; 
for the years were many and long ; the whirl of Lon- 
don life was great; gallant soldiers were home from the 
wars ; new men, new notorieties ; and out of sight is out 
of mind. The fashion of this world passes away; and 
whoso writes his name in it, writes in sand over which the 
floods come. The remembrance of Brummell gradually 
faded out of the highest circles, and his heart grew sick, 
for his hopes of cash were often deferred. He felt the 
want of luxuries, which, by long use, had become necessa- 
ries ; and his tone, which long kept its old assurance, began 
to waver. Vick, the terrier, died ; Brummell shed tears, 
and said he had lost his only friend. He immured himself 
for three days from all visitors, and for weeks he would 
permit no one to speak of the departed. But soon, as is 
often the way of disconsolate man, he took another bosom 
friend ; a somewhat different one, we remark — a poodle 
named Atous ; indeed he got him three poodles. Man- 
kind may go, (he said, or seemed to say) — mankind may 
go ; I'll take to dogs. 

In January, 1829, a German prince, who wrote letters 
and published them, came to Calais ; and in one of them 
he gives this picture of Brummell : "I found him at his 
toilet in flowered chintz dressing gown, velvet cap, with 
golden tassels, and Turkish slippers." " The furniture of 
his rooms was elegant enough ; part of it might even be 



72 GEOBGE BEUMMELL. 

called rich, though faded, and I cannot deny that the whole 
man seemed to me to correspond with it. Though de- 
pressed by his present situation, he exhibited a considerable 
fund of good humor and good nature. His air was that 
of good society, simple and natural, and marked by more 
urbanity than the dandies of the present race are capable 
of. With a smile he showed me his Paris peruke, which 
he extolled at the cost of the English ones ; and called 
himself ' le ci-devant jeune homme que passe sa vie entre 
Paris et Londres.' He appeared somewhat curious about 
me, asked me questions concerning people and things 
in London, without belying his good breeding by any 
kind of intrusiveness ; and said: ' Je suis aufait de tout, 
mais a quoi celd me sert-il ? On me laisse mourir defaim 
ici. Xespere, pourtant, que mon ancien ami le Due de 

W enverra, un beau jour, le consul d'ici d la Chine, 

et qu'ensuite quHl me nommera a sa place. Alors je suis 
sauve — .' As I took my leave, and was going down 
stairs, he opened the door and called after me, ' J'espere 
que vous irouverez voire chemin : mon Suisse n'est pas Id, 
je crains.* " 

But this old friend, the Duke of Wellington, did not 
make a vacancy at Calais in order to put Brummell into 
the consulship there ; and he, in great need, had to seek 
other means of salvation. At London, as we remember, 
he courted Fortune at the hazard table, and found her 
fickle ; and here at Calais, he in a feeble way beckoned to 
the blind lady through the lottery office ; but she is blind 
indeed ; for otherwise surely she had favored him, the 
blindest of her worshippers, who are all short-sighted. 
But if this lady was unkind to Brummell, another was not ; 
as the following letter from the Duchess of York will 
show : — 



GEORGE BEITMMELL. 73 

Oatlands, ce 20 Sept. (year wanting'.) 

Vous avez une maniere si aimahle d'annoncer les plus 
mauvaises nouvelles qu' ell es per dent par Id de leur desagre- 
mens. Je ne puis, cependant, que m'affliger avec vous de la 
perte de tous nous beaux projets defete, qui s'evanouissent 
avec le perte de notre billet de lotterie, dont je vous ac-, 
quit la dette ci-joint,'' &c. 

A very convenient partner she, bearing the whole loss her- 
self, it seems. 

The first great commandment of Brummell's life, we 
said, was this : Thou shalt not work. Nevertheless, two 
works he did leave behind him, extant after his own death, 
which must be mentioned here. 

First. An album ; which he commenced early in his 
London career, and continued to its end. Into this book, a 
ponderous quarto of plain vellum paper, the binding of 
dark-blue velvet, corners and clasps of massive embossed 
silver, he copied the contributions of his noble and noted 
friends. It was neat throughout, the handwriting beau- 
tiful, and legible as print. There were two hundred and 
twenty-six pieces, all in verse. The Duchess of Devon- 
shire, Fox, Sheridan, Byron, Lord John Townsend, Gen- 
eral Fitzpatrick, George Canning, and many others, figure 
in it ; also Brummell himself as original, though now ac- 
cused of borrowing, and even of pilfering. This book was 
Brummell's valued companion in exile ; in fact his sacred 
book, or Bible, containing the words of genteel life ; and 
in London, long ago, it was doubtless a famous thing. 
One young lady. Miss Georgiana, whose letter we gave 
some time since, evidently wished much to get the loan of 
it. She says : " You would make me very happy by lend- 
ing me the yellow book again ; the other I don't dare ask 

7 



74 GEORGE BRUMMELL. 

for, much as I wish it." But the yellow book, what was 
that ? a twin of the blue ? Albums were all " the rage " 
then ; but now, I am happy to say, they are not 
the rage. 

Secondly. A screen, the work of his mornings at Cal- 
ais, between the first and second toilets, intended for his 
most steadfast friend, the Duchess of York : five feet and 
a half high, twelve feet long, in six compartments, folding ; 
the ground of green ; on which he pasted drawings, engrav- 
ings of all kinds, colored and uncolored, such as he could get ; 
pictures of all kinds of beasts, or of most ; pictures of men, 
many of them caricatures, arranged in allegorical groups, 
one in each compartment ; illustrating the gossip of his 
London days. To describe this screen further transcends 
my ability. Captain Jesse devotes to it three pages ; and 
I, after some study, can only understand that it cannot be 
understood. The duchess died in 1820, before it was fin- 
ished. Brummell thereupon struck work, and the screen 
remained in his apartments, love's labor lost. This 
duchess seems to have been a very good lady, kind to the 
poor, kind to Brummell, kind to all her friends ; especially 
kind to dogs, of which she kept a hundred or more ; 
poodles, pugs, and lap-dogs ; and in her dog-cemetery the 
lives and characters of the departed were recorded on 
stone : a very kind lady ; perhaps also a satirical. One of 
the aforesaid dogs (if not more) was presented to the 
duchess by Brummell, as appears by her own testimony. 
In a letter to him she says : " Recevez mes remerciemens les 
plus sinceres pour cejoli petit chien ; c'est Vemhleme de la 
Fidelite ; faime a me flatter quil sera celui de la con- 
tinuation de notre amitie, a laquelle jevous assure que je 
attache le plus grand prix^ But where is now that re- 
markable screen ? Captain Jesse saw it, after Brummell's 



GEORGE BRUMMEI-I.. 75 

death, at an upholsterer's at Boulogne. It ought to be in 
some museum, Barnum's, or another ; I at this moment 
would cheerfully give the customary twenty-five cents, or 
even more, for a sight of it. 

One little story of Brummell, here at Calais, we must 
not omit, it being characteristic : for we should have noted 
before, that he, all through his life, kept clear of fights, 
and managed to do it without showing the white feather. 
Duels he expressly disapproved of; a hard blow on the 
face might injure one's good looks, (as his own nose some- 
times suggests ;) and a pistol shot, making the blood run, 
discolor one's clothes, and interfere, for a time, with affairs 
of the toilet : such results were to be avoided if possi- 
ble. But the story is this: A loose kind of man, some 
kind of an exile, — of whom there were many kinds there at 
Calais, — one whose nose had been smashed in battle, or 
otherwise, called on Brummell, demanding satisfaction for 
a calumnious report ; this, namely, that he who professed 
to be a military officer was no officer at all, but only a 
London hatter, whom he, Brummell, had formerly patron- 
ized. The Beau was very gracious, and assured the man 
he had said no such thing ; indeed, could not possibly 
have been guilty of such discourtesy. The man, satisfied 
and well pleased, took his departure. Brummell accom- 
panied him to the door, and there renewed his assurances, 
adding, at last : *' The report must be untrue ; for now that 
I think of it, I never, in my life, dealt with a hatter with- 
out a nose." The man, astounded, went his way. 

And so Brummell, with touches of his former self, strug- 
gled along in exile ; but he was continually in a poor way, 
or in no way at all, and his outlook was not cheerful. His 
furniture lost its gloss, his rooms had a dingy look, and 
their chief ornament, the famous Sevres china, disappeared. 



76 GEORGE BRUMMELL. 

Crockford, a London auctioneer, hearing of it, and of 
Brummell's wants, came over to Calais and bought it. He 
advertised it in London as " the finest and purest ever im- 
ported into England." The King bought a tea-set for two 
hundred guineas, and a pair of vases sold for three hundred 
pounds. Stripped of such things, the man was poor in- 
deed. But now Brummell heard, not without interest, that 
his old enemy had gone : on the 26th day of June, 1830, 
George the Fourth, ceasing to eat and drink, gave up the 
ghost. He was a pretty good king, they say in England ; 
he fed well, and kept within the enclosure of the constitu- 
tion. England requires of a king only what is required of 
a stalled ox. A good king or a bad, his death resulted in 
good, or the semblance of it, to poor Brummell. Mr. Can- 
ning had declined to ask an office for him from King 
George, " who never forgave an injury ; " but now the 
Duke of Wellington, at the request of Lord Alvanley and 
others, got of King William the consulship at Caen, or 
rather made one for him there — gave him, in fact, though 
under cover, a pension. If republics are ungrateful, con- 
stitutional monarchies are not ; and England, cherishing 
the Anglo-Saxon stuff in her, is proud of her ultimate men 
— her ultimates on the ocean wave and in the battle field ; 
and why should she be neglectful of her ultimate in the 
drawing room ? After serious consideration of this matter, 
I am of opinion that England did not do altogether wrong 
in giving her Beau Brummell a pension. Right or wrong, 
she gave him one by means of the consulship at Caen, the 
capital of Lower Normandy ; and Brummell, with com- 
mission in his pocket, dated September 10, 1830, was a 
happy man ; for he had his eye on the salary of the office, — 
four hundred pounds per annum, — and was eager to get it. 
But there were difficulties in the way. His debts at Calais, 



GEOKGE BRUMMELL. 77 

at this time, amounted to twenty-four thousand francs : to 
his banker Leveux, twelve thousand ; to his valet Selegue, 
six thousand one hundred and sixty-two ; Dessin's Hotel, 
for dinners, three thousand four hundred and eighty-eight ; 
to others, smaller sums ; and his creditors would not let 
him go. He had, at last, to assign of his salary three hun- 
dred and twenty pounds per annum to secure payment of 
these debts, leaving, therefore, as income for himself, only 
eighty pounds. This being arranged, he set out for Caen 
towards the end of September, 1830. On the way he 
spent a week at Paris, and dined there with the Prince of 
Benevento, Lord Stuart de Rothsay, Madame de Bagration. 
Good dinners and good wine revived the old spirit, and he 
gave order for a gold enamelled snuff-box, to cost twenty- 
five hundred francs, which, I hope, was not delivered. 

On the 5th day of October, George Brummell, Esq., 
his Britannic majesty's consul, with a net income of eighty 
pounds per annum, in a hired coach and four, his valet 
Selegue in the rumble, arrived at the Hotel de la Victoire 
in Caen, and soon took lodgings at the house of Madame 
Guernon de St. Ursain. Here, in a new place, with official 
dignity, he flourished for a time — one of the strangest 
officials ever seen in this world, where there are many 
strange ones. 

Caen, " the best built and most pleasant city in the 
north of France," stands in a region of limestone, which 
lies there in ridges. The River Orne, flowing northward 
to the English Channel, came long ago to one of these 
ridges, and, finding convenient way on both sides of it, split 
itself in two there ; these streams, diverging for a little 
time, drew together again, and united at the other extrem- 
ity of the ridge, forming thereby a proper place for the 
congregation of men ; and thereon was built the ancient 

7* 



78 GEORGE BRUMMELL. 

city of Caen. In after years the city spread out over this 
whole space, and finding it insufficient, pushed itself across 
one of the said streams ; so that it now runs through the 
city. With water flowing through and around it, Caen is 
nevertheless dirty; for which, therefore, let the citizens be 
blamed. The buildings are high, and, for the most part, 
of stone ; though there are some fantastic old structures 
of wood. At night the streets are lighted by lamps, hung 
over the middle, on ropes running across from wall to wall ; 
and here, under these lamps, pedestrians, by day and by 
night, go to and fro ; safer there than near the walls ; for 
liquids, not wanted within the houses, descend from the 
windows. In this old Norman city are objects of interest, 
had Brummell an eye for them. The churches, gray with 
age, — the builders long ago dead and forgotten, — are well 
worth seeing. In one of them, the Abbey of St. Etienne, 
is the tomb of William the Conqueror; in another, that 
of his queen, Matilda : and quaint old gables and curious 
carvings are all around. Or in the living present, if Brum- 
mell liked that better, he could see the pretty lace-makers, 
many thousands of them, in gay colors, plying their needles 
on summer days, about the doors and under trees, willing 
to see and be seen. 

The country around Caen is bleak ; and in winter the 
north winds come bitter and cold, laden with snow : there- 
fore the peasant women wear abundant petticoats ; often 
as many as seven, if you can count ; at least Mr. St. John 
says so."^' Under the chemise is a thick woollen waistcoat, 
with long sleeves, which turn back over the gown at the 
wrists, and are there of red or blue. These women are 
fond of bright colors ; and on their heads they wear high 

* A Journal of a Residence in Normandy, by J. Augustus St. John. 



GEORGE BRUMMELL. 79 

caps, not unbecoming. At night there is a curious sight, 
if you will look for it. Peeping into the cow houses, you 
will see, ranged on one side of the long building, the 
milky mothers of the herd contentedly chewing the cud ; 
and on the other side the lace-makers, many of them 
young, and some of them pretty, sitting with their feet in 
the straw : and before each, in a little niche in the wall, is 
a lamp ; the light of which, coming through a semi-cylin- 
drical glass vessel filled with water, is thereby made to 
fall full on the lace-work ; and the needles fly fast. At 
the feet of the young women recline their lovers ; and 
the mothers sit watchful lest the daughters love too much ; 
all of them wide awake, except the fathers, who, it seems, 
are the only sleepers ; they, and perhaps the cows. The 
reader will take all this with some limitations ; but it is 
pretty much according to St. John. Fuel is scarce in that 
old Norman country, and the aforesaid manner of congre- 
gation comes from need of warmth for the lace-work. The 
cows, the lovers, and the lamps combined, keep up a com- 
fortable temperature ; and the mothers tend to prevent a 
conflagration. *' The French are an economical people, 
and human ingenuity is great." But of all this, and of 
much else, Brummell was heedless ; he had no eye except 
for himself and his appurtenances. Picking his way 
along the streets, stepping from stone to stone to protect 
his well-polished boot; umbrella, with close-fitting silk 
case, always in hand, he, mainly attentive to himself and 
his poodles, sought out solitary places for his walks; — a 
man possessed. 

In his office, as consul, there was fortunately little to 
do ; and that little was done by his vice, a Mr. Hayter, 
whom he called his chancellor. He himself could not 
descend to common drudgery. He, a disabled hero, had 



80 GEORGE BRUMMELL. 

rightful claims. The winged courser, broken winded, is 
not put to the dray, but to grass ; and the high spirit in 
him looks out still, snorting for the race course. Surely, 
then, a Beau Brummell, topmost of his kind, had claims 
on England and Englishmen. But English visitors at 
Caen were few, while at Calais they were many ; and the 
change of pasture was of bad consequence to the hungry 
one, for helpful hands no longer brought tidbits when he 
whinnied. In February, 1832, however, one Englishman 
did come to Caen — Captain Jesse, a helpful man ; help- 
ful to me now, and I hope also to Brummell then. Jesse 
gives ample details of the dress and way of life, which 
shall be omitted here. We note, however, with some 
interest, that the famous hatterie de toilette, " the gift of 
the King," or rather of the Prince, was at that time com- 
plete, even to the little silver spitting dish ; for it is still 
" impossible for a gentleman to spit in clay." Sitting in 
Brummell's saloon, the bedroom door being open, the cap- 
tain saw, reflected in the mantel glass, the faded Beau, 
unconscious of exposition, making himself fit to be seen, 
the tweezers busy about his face — but we will shut the 
door. 

This stolen glimpse is the last that we shall get of that 
famous toilet service. One by one the defences of his 
gentility were beaten down ; the outworks went one after 
another ; at last the main battery fell, and the common 
world, with its pitiless realities, stormed in upon him. 
The man, half demented, in a fit of desperation, or in 
hope of removal to Havre, or, still better, to China, wrote 
to Lord Palmerston that there was no need of a consulate 
at Caen ; and Palmerston, having no doubt of that, did, 
in April, 1832, abolish the office ; and there could be no 
hope of another for Brummell any where in this world. 



GEORGE BRUMMELL. 81 

The man had been capable of filling one office only — that 
of Professor of Gentility ; and he had now become incapa- 
ble even of that. He was destitute now indeed, for the pitiful 
balance of his salary, eighty pounds per annum, ceased to 
come. He had to leave his rooms at Madame St. Ursain's 
house, and go to the Hotel d' Angleterre, — dining there at 
the table d'hote. Shaken to the centre, paralysis came over 
his outworks, and his brain ceased to do its accustomed 
work, whatever that had been ; he became forgetful, — 
every way helpless. Mr. Armstrong, (well named,) grocer, 
tea dealer, wine dealer, packet agent, " the factotum of 
the English at Caen," had to be a kind of guardian to 
him. The poor Beau, without love in his best estate, 
became now cynical, and he said to Madame St. Ursain, 
" Were I to see a man and a dog drowning together in 
the same pond, and no one looking on, I would prefer to 
save the dog " — so unjust had mankind been to him ! 

Matters going from bad to worse, Mr. Armstrong — 
Brummell being then in debt to him and others — went 
to England to make an appeal once more to old friends ; 
and he was successful in it. Among the contributors to 
a fund for the exile's relief were Lords Alvanley, Wil- 
loughby, Burlington, and many others. Among the help- 
ful appeared again the Duke of Wellington, — a man ever 
ready at the call of duty, let the call be what it would — 
to attend a court ceremonial, to assist a decayed beau, or 
to meet Napoleon in battle array ; and thereby he rose 
steadily, surely. Methinks I see him now, standing in 
that cornfield at Waterloo, looking on while the French 
cavalry troops dash against his infantry squares ; but the 
Iron Duke plucks ears of corn continually, crushing them 
in his hands, till Blucher comes ; for the hour was big 
and the man not altogether iron. 



82 GEORGE BETJMMELL. 

Thus, by the said contributions, the debts were paid, — 
but only the Caen ones, — which helped the matter little ; 
for the creditors at Calais, the assignment of salary being 
no longer available, became now very urgent ; and at last, 
Leveux, the banker, decided on a final step. Early one 
May morning in 1835, gens d'armes entered Brummell's 
bedroom in the Hotel d'Angleterre ; and he, perhaps for 
the first time in his life, had to dress in haste. They 
lodged him in prison, in a room where there were three 
truckle-beds with occupants. Three days after, in a letter 

to Madame , he said : " I still breathe, though I am 

not of the living." Soon, however, his condition im- 
proved ; his friends outside, Mr. Armstrong and others, 
bestirred themselves, and he was permitted to share the 
apartment of M. Godfroi by day, and at night he had a 
little cell to himself alone. In letters to Mesdames, and 
to Mr. Armstrong, he complained continually of many 
things, especially of his dinners, more especially of the 
want of articles for his toilet. Soon, however, he got 
under way again, after a fashion as near the old one as he 
could. M. Godfroi, the editor's editor of the " Amie de 
la Verite" a legitimist paper published at Caen, — a man, 
in fact, " hired to do duty as a prisoner whenever the 
demands of justice require it," — reports of Brummell as 
follows : — 

" II consacrait trois heures a sa toilette^ dont tons les 
details etaieni soignes avec une attention extreme. II 
se rasait chaque jour ; chaque jour [says the astonished 
Frenchman] il faisait une allution complete de toutes les 
parties de son corps a Vaide de la vaste cuvette d'un 
antique lav aha qui Vavait suivi en prison ; aussi une 
cassette rempli d' essences et de cosmetiques. Pour cette 
operation de proprete, inouie dans lesfastes de la prison ^ 



GEORGE BRUMMELL. 83 

douze d quinze litres d'eau, et deux litres de lait, lui 
etaient regulierement apportes par son valet de cham- 
hre, son Lajleur ; c'est ainsi qu'il nommait plaisamment 
Vancien tambour de ligne Paul Lepine, qui, en ce moment 
yrisonnier civil, etait a son service et a sa solde." 

This is the last we hear of Brummell's ablutions, which, 
formerly, were many and great. Cleanliness is a right 
good thing ; nevertheless, rather than a Brummell need- 
ing such excessive washings, I would prefer a Walker the 
Original, who, " even by total abstinence from soap and 
water, could not attain to a dirty face." 

In the beginning of July of the same year, Mr. Arm- 
strong, perhaps the best friend Brummell ever had, went 
again to England on his behalf, and returned with cash — 
one hundred pounds given by King William, two hun- 
dred pounds of the public money by Lord Palmerston, 
and smaller sums by others, — enough, if not to pay in 
full, tben to compromise, not only Caen debts, but those 
at Calais also; and on the 21st of July, 1835, he left the 
prison and returned to the Hotel d'Angleterre. At even- 
ing, on the same day, he appeared at a party at General 
Corbet's ; and when all crowded round him with con- 
gratulations, Brummell, bowing, said : "■Messieurs, je suis 
Men oblige pour votre bonte et charme de me trouver 
encore unefois parmi vans. Je puis vous assurer que c'est 
aujourd'hui le plus heureux jour de ma vie ; car je suis 
sorti de prison et — j'ai mange du saumon.^^ 

Out of prison, eating salmon, the man was doubtless 
happy for a day or more. Once an epicure, he had be- 
come a gormand now, and was on the way to gluttony, 
and the one hundred and twenty pounds per annum pro- 
vided for him by his friends were altogether insufficient 
for his many wants. Again he bethought him of the lot- 



34 GEORGE BRUMMELL. 

tery office, where for a very small sum you can buy a very 
large one, and grow up, like Jonah's gourd, in a night ; 
and '' the factotum of the English at Caen" found his 
totum, with this man in it, almost too much for him, and 
he had at last to give public notice that he would pay no 
bills against Brummell except for necessaries; but who 
shall define ? 

Men began at this time to say : *' Brummell is losing 
his mind ; " of which, indeed, there could be no doubt ; 
for the white cravat, with its inimitable tie, disappeared, 
and a black silk handkerchief took the place of it. But 
let us note- here a remarkable fact — this, namely, that 
when his mind broke up, his letters improved. Some of 
the latest to Mr. Armstrong are almost good ; and, as 
proof of it, we will read a part of one written in 1837 : — 

Dear Armstrong: 

It is, I can assure you, with the greatest reluctance I 
am compelled to solicit occasional assistance from you ; 
but I told the truth yesterday, when I represented the 
abject condition of my linen to you. I have not a single 
shirt that will hang to my back ; nor are my socks and 
drawers in a better state. . . . After the experience I have 
met with in this place, I have a horror of contracting new 
debts ; and yet, during the last two months, I have not 
possessed five francs for the most indispensable purposes. 
I am in ignorance of those who, through your mediation, 
have befriended me on the other side of the water ; nor 
do I know precisely the amount of their contributions ; 
therefore I am unable to write them my thanks for what 
they have done, or to make them acquainted with my con- 
tinued destitute situation. The belly indeed is filled, but 
the hand is empty, and the back unprovided for, . . . 



GEORGE BRUMMELL. 85 

The mind now breaking up was, it seems, that which 
overlaid the original one ; a crust too thick, surely, broken 
through too late. The hard hand of necessity had at last 
brought him back to nature and reality, and he could write 
in a simple, straightforward manner, every word to the 
purpose. Pity that hand had not been laid on him in his 
youth ; then, as professional actor in genteel comedy, he 
might have been the means of recreation to men who had 
toiled through the day, and of instruction to those who 
needed it in that kind. 

In July of this year, Thomas Moore, dining with Gen- 
eral Corbet at Caen, (where he, the said Thomas, then 
was, for the purpose of placing a little Tommy, or a lit- 
tler, at school,) met his old acquaintance, once the cele- 
brated Mr. Brummell, and made this entry in his journal : 
" Company, Rothe, Wright, Brummell, and one or two 
others. The poor Beau's head gone, and his looks so 
changed that I never should have recognized him. Got 
wandering in his conversation more than once during din- 
ner." Head gone, stomach remaining, he was still a good 
trencher-man ; but so much wanting otherwise, that invi- 
tations to dinner were few, I think ; and this dinner party 
was perhaps his last. But he had parties of his own, of 
a kind rare in the world of fashion. He arranged his 
apartment for the reception of visitors, tallow candles 
shedding a lurid light over all ; and his attendant, well 
instructed, announced the distinguished guests — the Duke 
of Bedford, Duke of Rutland, Lord Alvanley, the Duchess 
of Devonshire, and the rest of them. After the old man- 
ner he received each and all, bowing to the vacant air, 
which he had peopled thus ; and so he played his part 
with smiles, and bows, and high-flown speech, interrupted 
by bursts of tears, for the extant reality was at times too 

8 



86 GEORGE BRUMMELL. 

strono^ for him. At last the closing scene came, and tlie 
carriages were announced. " Shadows come, and so de- 
part," and the Beau gave a gracious bow to each depart- 
ing one ; but his best was given to her Grace of Devon- 
shire. This dashing Duchess deserves a little bow from 
us too, for she was not without real worth. Living in a 
heartless time, and deep in the dissipations of fashionable 
life, she loved her sister, her mother, her children ; and 
she had some idea of the meaning of duty. In a better 
time she had charmed men to better purpose. But did 
the reader, who has seen or heard of fancy balls, ever 
hear of one more fanciful than that ? The man's outer 
world and his inner, differing more and more, were now 
at utter variance ; and that party was one of his spasmodic 
attempts to unite them again. His life, a wonder to me 
all along, had now become incredible to himself. He 
broke down rapidly, becoming shabby, dirty, imbecile ; 
and the children, as he tottered through the streets, jeered 
and mocked him. At an obscure cafe near the Place 
Royale he could still sometimes get a cup of coffee on 
credit ; when the old woman there asked him to pay, he, 
looking oat at the window, and up at the sky, said : 
*' Owi, madame, d la pleine June, a la pleine lune ;*' and 
the pitying woman scored down another cup. We are 
glad to know that afterwards, at some stage of the moon, 
she was paid in full, and lost nothing by her kindness. 

Brummell's way of life in these his latter years alto- 
gether changed. Careless of his personal appearance, 
filthy in his habits, he became gluttonous, indeed raven- 
ous ; careless of the quality of his food, he was inordinate 
in quantity. For long years he had shut Nature out, 
heading her at every turn ; and she, indignant at his 
former treatment of her, was now bent on revenge. She 



GEORGE BEUMMELL. 87 

is tolerant of much, but not of all ; and the way of the 
confirmed transgressor is hard. 

Instead of many disgusting details of Brummell's life, 
we will place here a letter written by Mr. Armstrong ; 
to whom be praise for his kindness to this miserable 
man: — 

Caen, November 28, 1838. 

My dear Sir: 

I have deferred writing for some time, hoping to be 
able to inform you that I had succeeded in getting Mr. 
Brummell into one of the public institutions ; but, I am 
sorry to say, I have failed. I have also tried to get him 
into a private house ; but no one will undertake the charge 
of him in his present state. In fact, it would be totally 
impossible for me to describe the dreadful situation he is 
in. For the last two months I have been obliged to pay 
a person to be with him day and night, and still we cannot 
keep him clean ; he now lies on a straw mattress, which 
is changed every day. They will not keep him at the 
hotel, and M^hat to do I know not. I should think some 
of his old friends in England would be able to get him 
into some hospital, where he could be taken care of for 
the rest of his days. I beg and entreat of you to get 
something done for him, for it is quite out of the ques- 
tion that he can remain where he is. The clergyman 
and physician here can bear testimony to the melancholy 
state of idiocy he is in. 

Yours, faithfully, 

C. Armstrong. 

To , Esq., Street, London. 

Mr. ArTn«?troria:, who had done his utmost, came now 
almost to despair, for no one would take charge of the 



88 GEORGE BEUMMELL. 

idiot Brummell ; and in this world, where there are many- 
places, there seemed to be none for him. A little way off, 
however, on the Baycux road, stood the Bo7i Sauveur 
beckoning to him and all the helpless, and saying con- 
tinually. Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy 
laden, and I loill give you rest. Had Brummell ever any 
knowledge of the good Saviour and his self-sacrificing life ? 
Apparently not : to that, and all of its kind, he was deaf 
and blind ; but we can see that thereby was provided a 
place of refuge even for him, who was unconscious of it. 
Six months after the date of Mr. Armstrong's letter, Brum- 
mell, though unwilling, — for he struggled and shrieked, 
" A prison, a prison," — was placed in the Bon Sauveur : 
situate in the suburbs of Caen, near the Bayeux road, its 
buildings, gardens, and enclosures occupy a space of fifteen 
acres. Within the walls are several separate edifices — for 
the sick in body, for the deaf and dumb, for the sick in mind 
or insane ; and in this last Brummell found shelter, and was 
well cared for by Sisters of Charity. Here he sat, all the 
day long, before a large wood fire ; his man servant, or 
one of the Sisters, constantly in attendance. To a visitor 
who asked him : "Do you find yourself comfortable ? " 
he replied : " O, yes ; this excellent nurse is so kind that 
she refuses me nothing : I have all I want to eat, and such 
a large fire ; I never was so comfortable in all my life»'* 
No, never; nor so respectable, let us add. 

Here he lingered till the spring of the next year, kind 
Sisters watchful and helpful always — Sisters of Charity 
— unlike ladies of fashion ; but the difference is in some 
respects superficial only ; for hearts beat, and the blood 
courses, and at last it is dust to dust. 

It has been said : To study a man thoroughly is to learn 
to love him : and now the tinsel and lacquer of George 



GEORGE BEUMMELL. 89 

Brummell's gentility being altogether rubbed off, and his 
poor self left naked, we have come if not to love, then to 
pity, which is akin to it. He was not the most worthless 
of men ; nor was he more foolish than the thousand and 
one in each of our large cities, whose supreme object is a 
place in genteel society ; who live altogether in a vain 
show, holding the things that perish to be the sum and 
substance of human life. Not more worthless, nor more 
foolish, perhaps, but certainly more unfortunate. If the 
Duke of Queensberry, a shameless man, addicted to the 
indecencies, could pass his latter years with a few select 
friends, of which number Wraxhall was one, why could 
not George Brummell, addicted to the decencies and ele- 
gancies, have passed his latter years in a still more select 
circle, if he had had cash enough ? — a question which 
each one may answer for himself. 

Looking into the circumstances and influences under 
which George Brummell grew up, we find much to exten- 
uate his extreme gentility. His father's situation as pri- 
vate secretary of Lord North brought the child early into 
view of men of high rank, and, with a quick and sure eye 
for externals, he noted their peculiar w'ays. Without in- 
tellectual endowment or insight, he became possessed with 
that idea of gentility which informed his whole being, and 
rayed out into wondrous action. An orphan, without 
guidance, he came, while yet a boy of sixteen, into the 
highest circles of London life, and was welcomed and 
petted there. If the boy asked himself any question, it 
was this : What brought me up hither ? and the answer 
was so plain before him that he could not fail to find it. 
Thenceforth he devoted himself, soul and body, to the 
work ; and on the glittering heights, scaled by his own 
prowess, he stood delighted, determined to keep them free 

8^* 



90 GEORGE BRUMMELIi. 

of vulgar touch or taint. And be it especially noted that 
he stood there twenty years, admired, envied, even feared, 
by all aspirants to the highest honors. " We should all 
have dressed like him if we could," for one thing ; nor was 
he wanting in other things befitting that high place and 
noble time. Be it noted, too, that the man fell, not by want 
of personal merits, but by the loss of a sixpence with a 
hole in it ; or for want of other sixpences. 

We said much of Brummell's faith ; how he rose there- 
by — and thereby, too, he fell ; for by clinging to it, when 
out of its proper element, he became a byword in all 
lands. Martyrs to faith have been many ; highly honored, 
and long remembered : let not this one be forgotten so 
long as there can be use in remembrance of him. 

And now, having come to the end of the Beau's life, we 
will finish, as is proper, with a little flourish. On the 
30th day of March, 1840, the good Sister, sitting watchful 
by the bedside, saw that another of her works of charity 
was about to close as many others had done : and at even- 
tide, George Brummell, aged sixty-two, turned his face to 
the wall; and turned it never again. The lamp which 
once shone bright in the halls of fashion, gradually lost its 
brilliancy, and grew dim ; till, oil failing, it ceased to flame, 
and emitted only foul smoke ; at last it ceased even to 
smoke — and so Beau Brummell died. 



SAMUEL JOHNSON, 



The writings of Samuel Johnson, once famous in his 
native land, have gone out of fashion, and are no longer 
attractive there : and here among us, Anglo-Americans of 
the present generation, who are more inclined to a daring 
assertion of rights than to a faithful performance of du- 
ties, his books stand quietly on shelves among the British 
classics, and their quiet is seldom disturbed. But while 
the writings of the great moralist have fared thus, his 
Life, by James Boswell, still finds readers every where ; 
and it shall continue to find readers, and to charm them, 
so long as man feels an interest in his fellows. 

Johnson, it has been often said, was fortunate in his 
biographer ; and this saying is his highest eulogy ; for the 
men have been few indeed whose lives could bear such ex- 
position. At all times and in all places, convivial or pray- 
erful, in good mood or in bad, we see him as he lived, and 
moved, and talked. The minutest details, the most private 
recesses of his life, are brought before us and laid open, 
revealing the man to us completely ; and we learn at last 
that what charms us so is his fulness of manhood. Correct- 
ness, — what men call correctness, — consistency in word and 
deed, means, for the most part, only narrowness ; and that 
surely is not what we love and honor. On the whole, 

(91) 



92 SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

therefore, the essential question is : Has the man real 
worth, fulness of manhood ? Having this, we will take all 
that comes of it, and pardon what we cannot approve. 

David, the royal sinner, was a man after God's own 
heart, because he was a complete man, and did not belie 
his Maker. He fell, indeed, but he did not lie wallowing 
in the depths : he confessed his sin, and rose again prayer- 
ful : unto such " thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever." 
Paul of Tarsus, holding himself to be the chief of sin- 
ners, and not meet to be called an apostle, is now, next to 
the Master, the highest name in the Protestant church. 
His noble words come down to us through the centuries, 
and his manly deeds ; and we can know why Felix trem- 
bled, and also why "the elders fell on Paul's neck and 
kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words that he spake, 
that they should see his face no more." Martin Luther we 
honor, not because he was a saint or a theologian, but 
because he was first of all a man. He would play on his 
flute, and sit at his table and talk ; and he would also do 
his work though " it rained Duke Georges." Even a 
Mirabeau, bearing along his load of sin, not overborne by 
it, is interesting always ; and our own well-balanced 
Washington, a kind of lay-figure in history, redeems him- 
self, in our estimation, when he loses his balance a little, 
and shows touches of our common humanity. 

Good old Doctor Johnson, — he, too, was a large man, 
with room in him not only for many of the virtues, but also 
for some of the faults of humanity ; and we turn to him 
again and again with a loving reverence, which is always 
humorous, and therefore healthy. A great irregular mass 
of life full of seeming contradictions, which do yet blend 
into an harmonious whole ; for his essential truthfulness 
holds all together, and at last makes music of it. This 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. 93 

man had what we may call central veracity ; and he was, 
therefore, an enigma and offence to many of his contempo- 
raries ; for his outcome had a wonderful look of contra- 
diction and inconsistency. A strenuous supporter of 
church and state, an observer of all distinctions in rank, 
he yet knows well what orders of nobility, and other things 
of that kind, mean ; and also what they do not mean. In 
his famous letter to Lord Chesterfield, he is mindful 
throughout of what is due to "my lord," and nowise for- 
getful of what is due to Samuel Johnson, \vhose Diction- 
ary is a work which no lord then living in England could 
have done so well. His letters to his negro servant, 
Francis Barber, begin, "Dear Francis," and end, "Yours 
affectionately ; " and in his letters to Mr. Levett, he desires 
his "kind regards to Francis and Betty :" but at Bright- 
helmstone he turned his back abruptly on Lord Boling- 
broke; and, when Mr. Thrale anxiously remonstrated, 
Johnson said : " I am not obliged, sir, to find reasons for 
respecting the rank of him who will not condescend to de- 
clare it by his dress, or some other visible mark : what are 
stars and other signs of superiority made for ? " This 
lord, and all other lords, will please take notice, and gov- 
ern themselves accordingly. Indeed, Johnson, a steady 
opponent of the modern doctrines of liberty and equality, 
recognized always the brotherhood of man. Some men 
are born to high place, and some to low, and all places 
must be filled. Such is the appointment of the almighty 
Ruler : and if there is to be any real order in this world, 
there must be subordination. Nevertheless, all men, from 
the king himself, before whom Johnson once stood face 
to face and talked, down to " dear Francis," the negro, 
are human beings ; neither more nor less ; and Frank 
must go to school after he is thirty, and learn some of the 



94 SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

things befitting a man to know. The doctor's friends, ac- 
cordingly, are of all classes, and various enough. At the 
club are — Edmund Burke, the Sublime and Beautiful; 
Oliver Goldsmith, a small man, but genuine ; not handsome, 
indeed rather ugly : pen in hand he can write a Vicar of 
Wakefield, though hearing his talk you would doubt it : he 
has travelled over a great part of Europe on foot, and played 
tunes for peasants to dance by : easily offended, he is easily 
pleased again, and bears no malice to any living thing. 
There, too, are Bennett Langton, " a tall, meagre, long- 
visaged man," who, taking a seat, draws himself together, 
twisting one leg round the other, and then places his snuff"- 
box on the table : when any one speaks to him he takes a 
pinch, but not before ; — Sir Joshua Reynolds, a rather short 
man, with roundish, blunt features; florid, with a lively 
look ; a happily constituted, healthy man, who " is the 
same all the year round ; " not spoiled by prosperity, but 
constant to old friends, who are welcome always at his 
table, where is good company; — David Garrick, a famous 
actor, M'hose play of features is so great that his face 
shows the wear and tear of it : he amuses men so much 
that when he departs this life it shall be said of him: 
" His death eclipsed the gayety of nations, and diminished 
the stock of harmless pleasure;" — Topham Beauclerk, 
*' with his wit and his folly, his acuteness and malicious- 
ness, his merriment and his reasoning:" "No man ever 
was so free, when he was going to say a good thing, from a 
look that expressed that it was coming ; or, when he had 
said it, from a look that expressed that it had come." 
These men, and others more or less known to us, are at 
the Boar's Head Tavern often ; among them James Bos- 
well, a Scotchman, with blood of the Bruce in his veins, 
somewhat diluted. He leaves his wife at home complain- 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. 95 

ing of his absence, but half glad he is gone, and comes to 
London often, taking notes for our instruction. When the 
doctor begins to see-saw, he, leaning eagerly forward says : 
"Hush! Doctor Johnson is going to speak :"*and Bos- 
well is right, for the speech is worth listening to always. 
The staple of it is good strong sense, with wit and humor 
enough. He seldom introduced a topic, but when one 
was started he would strike in, often in this way : " Why, 
sir, as to the good or evil of card playing ; " and was then, 
Garrick said, considering which side he would take. His 
prejudices, so called, are prominent always, and have their 
foundation in his love of Old England : all men outside 
of England are foreigners ; and Scotchmen, as being near- 
est and most intrusive, fare worst. When Boswell, eager 
for an introduction to Johnson, got one, he whispered to the 
introducer, Tom Davies, *' Don't tell where I come from." 
*' From Scotland," cried Davies, roguishly. " Mr. John- 
son," said I, " I do indeed come from Scotland, but I can- 
not help it." He replied : " That, sir, I find is what a 
very great many of your countrymen cannot help : " and 
of such half-sportive sallies against Scotland and Scotch- 
men there is no end. Loving Old England, he loves her 
church ; and Scotland's great offence is Presbyterianism. 
Told that a steeple in St. Andrews was tottering, he said : 
Do not take it down, " for it may fall on some of the pos- 
terity of John Knox, and no great matter." Reminded by 
Boswell, when they were in Scotland together, that Epis- 
copalians were only dissenters there, and were tolerated, he 
said : " Sir, we are here as Christians in Turkey." He 
would not countenance a Presbyterian kirk by attending 
service in it, but said, if the minister would get up into a 
tree and preach, he would listen — a perilous place, however, 

* The words may be a Dutchman's, but the attitude is certainly Boswell's. 



96 SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

for if the preacher had said a word against our church, 
Johnson had shaken him down. New England in rebel- 
lion against Old was the abomination of abominations to 
him ; and if he could have placed his foot on our neck 
then, Yankee-doodle had ceased forever. For Frenchmen, 
and other outsiders, he had little respect. " One evening 
at Slaughter's coffee-house, where a number of them were 
talking loud about little matters, he said : ' Does not this 
confirm old Meynell's observation : For any thing I can 
see, foreigners are fools ' V When there was talk of a 
French invasion, he said it was all idle talk ; nobody had 
fear; it was only affectation of fear. Frenchmen invade 
England ! Frenchmen ! — the thing was incredible to him. 
But let us note here that any man, be he foreigner, 
Scotchman, or whig dog, who gets within the outer cor- 
don of these prejudices, can then, if he have any real 
worth, get very near to the doctor and be welcome. Few 
things in any book are more amusing than the account, in 
Boswell's clear, truthful way, of the interview between 
Johnson and John Wilkes. Boswell " had conceived an 
irresistible wish to bring, if possible," these two men 
together ; and knowing that the doctor was " sometimes 
a little actuated by the spirit of contradiction," he schemed 
accordingly ; and, after preliminary arrangements, said to 
him : " Mr. Dilly, sir, sends his respectful compliments to 
you, and would be happy if you would do him the honor 
to dine with him on Wednesday next along with me, as I 
must soon go to Scotland." Johnson : " Sir, I am obliged 
to Mr. Dilly ; I will wait on him." Boswell : " Provided, 
sir, I suppose, that the company which he is to have is 
agreeable to you." Johnson : " What do you mean, sir ? 
What do you take me for ? Do you think that I am so 
ignorant of the world as to imagine that I am to prescribe 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. 97 

to a gentleman what company he is to have at his own 
table ? " Bos well : "I beg your pardon, sir, for wishing 
to prevent you from meeting people whom you might not 
like. Perhaps he may have some of what he calls his 
patriotic friends with him." Johnson: "Well, sir, what 
then ? What care / for his patriotic friends ? Poh ! " 
Boswell : "I should not be surprised to find Jack Wilkes 
there." Johnson: *' And if Jack Wilkes should be there, 
what is that to me, sir ? My dear friend, let us have no 
more of this. I am sorry to be angry with you ; but really 
it is treating me strangely to talk to me as if I could not 
meet any company whatever, occasionally." Boswell : 
" Pray forgive me, sir ; I meant well ; but you shall meet 
whoever comes, for me." And so Boswell, as he thought, 
*' secured him ; " but man is born to trouble as the sparks 
fly upward, and on *' the much-expected Wednesday," 
when Boswell called in time to take the doctor along, he 
" found him buffeting his books, covered with dust, and 
making no preparation for going abroad." " How is this, 
sir ? " said Boswell. '* Don't you recollect that you are to 
dine at Mr. Dilly's ? " Johnson : *' Sir, I did not think of 
going to Dilly's : it went out of my head. I have ordered 
dinner at home with Mrs. Williams ; " and to Boswell's 
expostulations he said : " You must talk to Mrs. Williams 
about this." The persevering man forthwith hastened 
down stairs, and beset the blind lady with cogent arguments 
and entreaties ; till she, gradually softening, said at last, 
that, *' all things considered, she thought he certainly 
should go." Mrs. Williams's consent announced to him, 
the doctor roared out : *' Frank, a clean shirt." So Bos- 
well prevailed ; and he says : *' When I had him fairly 
seated in a hackney coach with me, I exulted as much as a 
fortune-hunter who has got an heiress into a post-chaise with 



98 SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

him to set out for Gretna Green." ..." When he entered 
Mr. Dilly's drawing-room, he found himself in the midst 
of a company he did not know. I kept myself snug and 
silent, watching how he would conduct himself. I observed 
him whispering to Mr. Dilly : ' Who is that gentleman, 
sir ? ' * Mr. Arthur Lee.' Johnson : ' Too, too, too,' 
(under his breath,) which was one of his habitual mutter- 
ings. Mr. Arthur Lee could not but be very obnoxious to 
Johnson, for he was not only a patriot, but an American. 
* And who is the gentleman in lace ? ' ' Mr. Wilkes, 
sir.' This information confounded him still more ; he had 
some difficulty to restrain himself, and taking up a book, 
sat down on a window seat and read," or seemed to read. 
When dinner was announced, Wilkes seated himself next 
to the doctor, who, for a time, was rather surly to the 
*' dog of a whig ; " but Wilkes was attentive, polite, 
genial ; and soon the two were in full tide, flowing on 
together harmonious enough ; and there was good talk that 
day at Mr. Dilly's, though we have space for little of it. 
*' Mr. Arthur Lee mentioned some Scotch, who had taken 
possession of a barren part of America, and wondered they 
should choose it." Johnson : " Why, sir, all barrenness is 
comparative ; the Scotch would not know it to be barren." 
Boswell : *' Come, come, he is flattering the English. You 
have now been in Scotland, sir ; and say if you did not see 
meat and drink enough there." Johnson : " Why, yes, 
sir, meat and drink enough to give the inhabitants suffi- 
cient strength to run away from home." At another din- 
ner party, some years later, Boswell, after the company 
had dropped away, was astonished to observe " Dr. Samuel 
Johnson and John Wilkes, Esq., literally tete-d-tete, re- 
clined upon their chairs with their heads leaning almost 
close to each other, and talking earnestly, in a kind of con- 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. 99 

fidential whisper, of the personal quarrel between George 
the Second and the King of Prussia." * 

Of Johnson's roughness and rudeness we have heard 
more than enough ; for, on close inspection, much of it 
disappears. Will the reader, at a safe distance, look a 
little ? " When he walked the streets, what with the con- 
stant roll of his head and the concomitant motion of his 
body, he appeared to make his way by that motion inde- 
pendent of his feet. That he was often much stared at 
while he advanced in this manner, may easily be believed ; 
but it was not safe to make sport of one so robust as he 
was. Mr. Langton saw him one day, in a fit of absence, 
drive, by a sudden start, the load off a porter's back, and 
walk forward briskly without being conscious of M^hat he 
had done. The porter was very angry, but stood still, 
and eyed the huge figure with much earnestness, till he 
was satisfied that his wisest course was to be quiet, and 
take up his burden again." This man, who is of large, 
robust body, is also of large, robust mind, and in talking, 
as in walking, gives hard knocks often unconsciously ; but 
he shoots no poisoned arrows, nor even any barbed ones : 
rolling along on his way, he jostles many ; and those of 
thin skin complain. The finer sensibilities of the human 
heart are very pretty to talk about, and they play a great 
part in novels ; but in real life they are not helps, but 
hinderances, to every good work. Johnson's own house 
was a kind of hospital of incurables. Asked once how 
he could bear to have such people about him there, he 
said: " If I did not shelter them no one else would, and 
they would be lost." In such a household the finer sen- 
sibilities of the human heart would not find themselves at 



* For an account of this qiiarrel, see Carlyle's " History of Frederick the 
Second," New York, 1858, vol. ii, chap. vi. 



100 SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

home ; they would have to retire and seek sweet relief in 
tears. On the whole, we are too often unreasonable in 
our requirements : straightness of limb, smoothness of 
rind, are well, indeed pretty, in their proper place ; but 
of the British oak we will require not such things, but 
other and better : and in this connection let us note his 
lordly indifference to much that vexes ordinary men. To 
the many attacks on him as a public ^^Titer he makes no 
reply ; and he takes no notice of them except to say that 
they are of service to him ; that they attract public atten- 
tion to him ; and an author needs an attentive public. 
" No author," he says, " was ever written down except by 
himself." Of his many peculiarities he offers no explana- 
tions. His whims, his prejudices, his strange contortions, 
are open, forthcoming at all times, and there is nowhere 
concealment of them. In his garret-study is an old deal 
table, and two chairs ; one of which, wanting a leg, is 
difficult to sit on, and has to be leaned against the wall ; 
but he receives visitors without a word of apology : he is 
Doctor Johnson ; this is his room ; and if you like good 
talk you shall have it, but not much else. In the 
Hebrides, " one of our married ladies, a lively little 
woman, sat down on Doctor Johnson's knee, and, en- 
couraged by some of the company, put her hands round 
his neck and kissed him. ' Do it again,' said he, ' and 
let us see who will tire first.' " In this " Journal of a 
Tour to the Hebrides " are recorded many things of John- 
son, which a teacher of morality, of the common stamp, 
would wish expunged if recorded of him ; but not so the 
brave old doctor. Boswell says expressly, that the whole 
was read to him day by day, as it was written ; and at 
the foot of a page filled with statements of Johnson's 
strange ways is this note : " It is remarkable that Doctor 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. 101 

Johnson should have read this account of some of his 
peculiar habits without saying any thing on the subject ; 
which I hoped he would have done." 

Reading in Boswell's Johnson, Croker's Boswell's John- 
son, and in Johnsoniana, we think of Johnson always as 
old, and cannot figure him otherwise ; nevertheless, that 
he was once a boy, and did run, jump, and roll, is shown 
by the best of testimony — his own. At Lichfield he 
walked round Mr. Levett's field, searching for a rail he 
used to jump over when a boy. When he had found it, 
" I stood," he said, " gazing upon it some time with a 
degree of rapture, for it brought to my mind all my juve- 
nile sports and pastimes ; and at length I determined to 
try my skill and dexterity. I laid aside my hat and wig, 
pulled off my coat, and jumped over it twice." Walking 
in the country with Mr. Langton and others, they came 
to the top of a steep hill, and the doctor said he would 
" take a roll." "We endeavored to dissuade him; but he 
was resolute, saying he had ' not had a roll for a long 
time.* " Taking from his pockets all small articles, — 
keys, pencil, and knife, — he laid himself down and rolled 
from top to bottom. This is ludicrous enough, and the 
first emotion is laughter ; but if the reader will look into 
it, he may find a meaning which will affect him quite 
otherwise. Certainly he will learn from these anecdotes 
and others, not only that Samuel Johnson was once a boy, 
but that he was also a genuine man, and not a starched, 
pasteboard figure, like many other moralists. This man, 
rude, rough, shockingly impolite, and altogether wanting 
in the finer sensibilities, was yet invariably kind and help- 
ful to the poor and wretched ; indeed, we may say that 
his charities were bounded only by his want of means. 
" He frequently gave all the silver in his pockets to the 
9* 



102 SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

poor who watched him between his house and the tavern 
where he dined " — his house, where are lodged blind 
Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Desmoulins, Miss Carmichael, Rob- 
ert Levet, and another. To Mrs. Desmoulins, a widow, 
daughter of an old friend, Dr. Swinfen, of Lichfield, he 
allows half a guinea a week, which is the twelfth part of 
his pension. Late at night he finds in the street a mis- 
erable woman, exhausted so that she cannot walk ; he 
takes her in his arms, and carries her to his home, where 
she is cared for long, and learns that in a world where 
there are many bad men, there is at least one good ; and 
becomes herself, we can hope, the better for such knowl- 
edge. Finding poor, homeless children asleep on door- 
steps and stalls, he slips pennies into their little hands ; 
they wake at early morn, wondering, and think of the 
good God who cared for them while they slept. He helps 
also other needs, and writes sermons for clergymen short 
of brains, prefaces for authors who cannot say a reason- 
able word about their own works, and dedications for men 
who cannot make a manly literary bow for themselves. 
So well known is he for this kind of work, that Bet Flint, 
a woman of the town, calls on him. Life in hand, written 
in verse, and asks him for a preface to it ; but the doc- 
tor's charities are not quite boundless, and he finds this 
work beyond the limits. " It is wonderful," says Bos- 
well, *' what a number and variety of writers, some of 
them unknown to him, prevailed on his good nature to 
look over their works, and suggest corrections and im- 
provements." " Sir," said he to one, " I do not say that 
it may not be made a good translation " — which seems to 
be somewhat polite. One of these authors, unknown to 
fame, the reader, looking through Boswell's eyes, may see 
if he will. " A printed * Ode to the Warlike Genius of 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. 103 

Britain ' came next in review. The bard was a lank, bony 
figure, with short, black hair. He, writhing himself in 
agitation while Johnson read, and showing his teeth in a 
grin of earnestness, exclaimed in broken sentences and 
in a keen, sharp tone : * Is that poetry, sir ? Is it Pindar ?' 
Johnson : ' Why, sir, there is a great deal of what is called 
poetry.' Then, turning to me, the poet cried : ' My muse 
has not been long upon the town, and (pointing to the 
Ode) it trembles under the hand of the great critic' John- 
son, in a tone of displeasure, asked him : ' Why do you 
praise Anson ? ' I did not trouble him by asking his rea- 
son for this question. He proceeded : ' Here is an error, 
sir ; you have made Genius feminine.' ' Palpable, sir,' 
cried the enthusiast ; ' I know it. But [in a lower tone] 
it was to pay a compliment to the Duchess of Devonshire, 
with which her grace was pleased. She is walking across 
Coxheath in the military uniform, and I suppose her to 
be the Genius of Britain.' Johnson : ' Sir, you are giving 
a reason for it, but that will not make it right.' " The 
reader, fond of pictures, may look at this : A garret-study 
with scanty furniture ; an old writing-table ; two chairs, 
one of them a cripple ; and books scattered all about. 
The central figure is the Colossus of British literature, 
rolling like the ocean. Before him stands an author un- 
known to fame, — a lank, bony man, with eager look, 
showing his teeth ; and aside sits James Boswell, " with 
cheeks like half-filled wine-skins," slyly taking notes. This 
is Johnson among the authors ; now let us look at him 
among the ladies, where he is amusing always. Attracted 
and repelled, half pleased and half afraid, they hover round, 
and, on the whole, rather like him. In such company he 
always *' talked his best ; " and he said once : " I like a 
compliment, especially from a pretty woman." Talking 



104 SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

with the Honorable Miss Monckton, afterwards Countess 
of Cork, she said that some of Sterne's writings were very- 
pathetic. Johnson bluntly dissented. *' I am sure," said 
she, " they have affected me." " Why," said he, smiling, 
and rolling himself about, " that is because, dearest, you're 
a dunce." When she, some time afterwards, reminded 
him of this, he said : " Madam, if I had thought so, I 
certainly should not have said it." At Inverary Castle, 
" Doctor Johnson talked a great deal, and was so enter- 
taining that Lady Betty Hamilton, after dinner, went and 
placed her chair close to his, leaned on the back of it, and 
listened eagerly." The Duchess of Argyle was very atten- 
tive to him ; and when Bos well said to him : " You were 
quite a fine gentleman when with the duchess," he re- 
plied : " Sir, I look upon myself as a very polite man." 

" Molly Aston," says the doctor, " was a beauty and 
a scholar, and a wit and a whig, and she talked all in 
praise of liberty. . . . She was the loveliest creature I ever 
saw." One day, a fortune-telling gypsy, looking at his 
hand, said : " Your heart is divided, sir, between a Betty 
and a Molly ; Betty loves you best, but you take most 
delight in Molly's company. . . . When I turned about to 
laugh, I saw my wife was crying. Pretty charmer ! she 
had no reason." Ladies that visit him in Bolt Court have 
attention enough. Always he attends them to their car- 
riages, and, in indescribable morning undress, stands bow- 
ing till they drive away ; and all passers-by stop to look, 
as well they may, for the doctor is a gentleman of the old 
school — old, perhaps, as Adam. 

The wife, pretty charmer who cried, was once the 
widow Porter. On her first interview with Johnson, she 
said : " This is the most sensible man that I ever saw in 
my life ; " and yet, with female perversity, she, on the 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. 105 

way to church, tried to makp a fool of him. " Sir, she 
had read the old, romances, and had got into her head the 
fantastical notion that a woman of spirit should use her 
lover like a dog. So, sir, at first she told me that I rode 
too fast, and she could not keep up with me ; and when I 
rode a little slower, she passed me, and complained that I 
lagged behind. I was not to be made the slave of caprice, 
and I resolved to begin as I meant to end ; I therefore 
pushed briskly on till I was fairly out of sight. The road 
lay between two hedges ; so I was sure she could not miss 
it, and I contrived that she should soon come up with me : 
when she did, I observed her to be in tears." This bride, 
surely, had fair warning while it was yet time ; and the 
life that followed the wedding was doubtless the better 
for it, though the husband did have occasionally to pro- 
pose " a touch at the ceiling." David Garrick bore wit- 
ness to the fact that Johnson had a '* tumultuous fond- 
ness " for his wife ; and after her death, he studied and 
wrote in the garret, " because," he said, " that is the only 
room in the house in which I never saw Mrs. Johnson." 
How much he cherished her memory, and how long, may 
be learned from his Prayers and Meditations. Indeed, 
this man had a good, sound, human heart in him. Moral- 
izing much, striving always to regulate his life by the dic- 
tates of reason, his love of real fellowship, his intense 
human sympathies, often ran away with him ; and so, in 
old London, there was, after midnight, such a transaction 
as this. Bennett Langton and Topham Beauclerk, out on 
a frolic, rapped loudly at the doctor's door. Aroused from 
sleep, he at last appeared in night-dress, poker in hand, 
prepared for trouble. When he learned who the intruders 
were, and what they wanted, he said : " What, is it you, 
you dogs ! I'll have a frisk with you." And coming down 



106 SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

into the street, half dressed, the great moralist went with 
the wild fellows to the Mitre Tavern, where they had a 
bowl of bishop, and at early morn took a boat and rowed 
to Billingsgate. This Beauclerk, a gay, dissipated man, 
Johnson loved, and could not help loving ; though he re- 
proved him often. He said to him once : " Thy body is 
all vice, and thy mind all virtue." Beauclerk seeming to 
dislike this, the doctor said : " Nay, sir, Alexander the 
Great, marching in triumph into Babylon, could not have 
desired to have had more said of him." 

One of the notable things in Johnson's life is his re- 
ception of a pension. From the 18th of September, 1709, 
the date of his birth, to the day of his death, December 
18, 1784, the years are seventy-five; and till his fifty- 
third year he was poor, sometimes even to destitution. 
Then, friends moving for him, " His Majesty, George the 
Third, was pleased to grant him a pension of three hundred 
pounds per annum." There was consultation among these 
friends about announcing this fact to him : at last, Mr. 
Murphy undertook the perilous adventure, and came off 
safe, as men often do from seeming perils. The announce- 
ment made, Johnson remained long silent, and then asked : 
" Is it seriously meant ? " Assured that it was even so, 
he fell silent again. His thoughts are not disclosed to 
any considerable extent, but we can guess at them. 
Through many obstructions, outward and inward, he has 
fought his way onward and upward. He is incurably dis- 
eased, and since his twentieth year has passed hardly a 
day without pain. He inherited from his father " a vile 
melancholy," which made him " mad all his days, at least 
not sober," and he says that the great business of his life 
has been to escape from himself. In days of extreme 
destitution, he has hurled away a pair of shoes which some 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. 107 

well-meaning friend placed at his door. With Richard 
Savage he has walked the streets of London all night, for 
want of means to pay for a lodging ; but they had '* high 
talk," and *' resolved to stand by their country." He has 
done much literary job-work for Edmund Cave, proprietor 
of the Gentleman's Magazine, and has had the honor of 
seeing, through a cloud of tobacco smoke, Mr. Browne, 
one of the contributors to that famous periodical : in 
Cave's own house he, once at least, " had a plate of vict- 
uals " sent to him behind a screen. The man has lived on 
fourpence halfpenny per day, and has suffered much that 
we know, and more that we do not know ; for he hated 
" a complainer," and said always, " Men get in this world 
what they deserve ; " though reading one day a description 
of the life of a poor scholar, he burst into tears. He has 
written London, a poem ; Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia ; 
the Rambler ; the Idler ; and much else : among other things 
he has made a Dictionary of the English Language. He 
has no doubt of his need, and can have none of his 
deserts ; but he calls to mind his own definitions of the 
words Pension and Pensioner ,• and his declaration of in- 
dependence in his letter to Chesterfield ; nor can he fail 
to think of his attachment to the house of Stuart, and of 
what may be expected of a pensioner of the house of 
Brunswick. These, or such as these, were his thoughts ; 
and his conclusion, after due inquiry about the conditions 
of the grant, was altogether right. Told afterwards that 
there was much talk of his acceptance of a pension, he 
said : "I wish it could be doubled in amount, so that twice 
as much noise could be made about it." From this time 
forth to the end, Johnson lived in comparative comfort, 
and could " fold his legs and have his talk out," as he 
loved to do ; but, eminent talker as he was, he knew well 



108 SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

that words are not final. Questioned about liberty of 
opinion and expression, he said : " Sir, I have got no far- 
ther than this — that every man has a right to utter what 
he holds to be truth, and every other man has a right to 
knock him down for it ; " which seems, indeed, to be 
granting the largest liberty all round. When Osborne, 
the bookseller, became abusive, Johnson put that schol- 
arly weapon, a folio, to an uncommon use ; and when he 
learned that Foote proposed to represent him on the stage, 
and show off his personal peculiarities for public amuse- 
ment, he got a large oak stick, and said: "If the scoun- 
drel dares attempt it, I will go on the stage and break every 
bone in his body ; " and Foote prudently took other means 
to amuse the public. Learning that Ossian Macpherson 
threatened to close their controversy by personal chastise- 
ment, Johnson, that same oak stick, or another, in hand, 
declared himself ready to try conclusions so ; and in this 
way, and other ways, he was ready always to face the 
enemy. 

The man was, indeed, a kind of leviathan, and he had 
appetite accordingly. Days long he could fast, and, years 
through, abstain from wine ; but when he ate, he did it 
with a will, and when he drank, it was in no stinted 
measure. A man of large desire, but with strong hold of 
it : in his times of total abstinence he would sit at the 
convivial board as late as the latest, and say, with truth, 
" Sir, I no more think of drinking wine than does the dog 
Carlo under the table." But let the fastidious reader 
note, furthermore, the doctor's appetite for knowledge, 
which also was enormous. Of scholarship he had, we 
suppose, as much as was needful ; and he knew how to 
use it ; but he was not specially eminent in that ; for his 
deepest interest was in the practical world — in the ways 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. 109 

and doings of men. Of all professions and handicrafts, 
down to the lowest, he had knowledge, and could say a 
reasonable word. Here, indeed, his insight was of the 
deepest ; for he looked at the practical thing, not as he 
looks who seeks in it only pecuniary profit, but with 
that pure love of the thing itself which leads to real 
knowledge of it. It is very true that " the proper study 
of mankind is man ; " but we must study him not as an 
abstract corpse, laid out in the metaphysical dissecting 
room, but as living, acting, brother man, who can reveal 
himself to us so, but not otherwise ; and herein lies the 
excellence of Johnson's spoken words compared with his 
written. In these last, though the lesson inculcated is 
good, it is too often lifeless, barren ; for he writes to the 
world at large, and treats of man in the abstract, and of 
the morality that befits him in that state ; but, talking, he 
stood in contact with actual, living men, and the word he 
spoke then had vitality in it. He was himself not with- 
out perception of this : when Boswell read to him the 
record of his oral speech, he listened without disapproba- 
tion ; but when a Rambler was read aloud in his presence, 
he turned away with a gesture of discontent, and said : 
" I thought it had been better." His writings, indeed, 
were task- work, imposed on him by necessity; by the 
need of daily bread, or by some other urgent need, as 
when he wrote Rasselas at one sitting to defray the ex- 
penses of his mother's funeral : at one sitting; " but then, 
sir, I sat all night." Always, when he wrote, he got on 
at a great rate ; but he was unwilling to begin, for writing, 
on many accounts, was painful to him. Viva voce utter- 
ance, on the contrary, was delightful, and in that the 
whole man came into play; all his faculties joining in 
sport — the sport of an earnest man, which is humor. 

10 



110 SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

When there are many contradictions in a man's lot, as 
there were in Johnson's, there is often no way of escape 
from utter misery but through the medium of humor ; the 
subtilest quality of man, pervading, when genuine, his 
whole being, and springing from a deep conviction that 
" things are not what they seem ; " though we are, to a 
great extent, obliged to deal with them according to their 
seeming. Johnson's humor, being of this essential kind, 
we shall find it not so much in his speech as in his life 
itself. 

This poor, diseased scholar, uncouth, ungainly, who 
had to make his way in the world unaided, was a steady 
supporter of all high things — the state with its mon- 
archy and aristocracy, the church with its bishops and 
archbishops ; and he was perhaps the most aristocratic 
man in the British dominions. " High people," he says, 
" are the best ; " they will not cheat, or, if they do cheat, 
are ashamed of it. Trades-people retired from busi- 
ness he specially disliked: "they have lost the civil- 
ity of tradesmen without acquiring the manners of gen- 
tlemen." There are often such sayings as these : " If I 
Avere a man of great estate, I would drive all the rascals, 
whom I did not like, out of the county at an election." 
*' If I were minister of state, no man should dare lift his 
finger in opposition ; " and, " Patriotism is the last refuge 
of a scoundrel." In his whole life there is no trace of 
the thing called trading, making a good bargain ; and he 
has found " the booksellers generous, liberal-minded men" 
always. To all people that he employed he was very con- 
stant, if they served him well. His servant for more than 
thirty years was Francis Barber, to whom he left the 
greater part of his small estate. The man indeed was 
essentially lordly, above meanness of every kind, scorning 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. Ill 

concealments. Asked by a lady how he could give this 
definition in his Dictionary, — Pastern, the knee of a 
horse, — he replied: "Ignorance, madam, pure igno- 
rance." He and David Garrick, both natives of Lichfield, 
came together from that town to London to try what for- 
tune might yield. Many years afterwards, when Johnson 
had become doctor, and Garrick rich, they were dining in 
a large company. Some chronological question coming 
up, Johnson said : " That was the year I came to London 
with two pence halfpenny in my pocket." Garrick, over- 
hearing him, exclaimed : " Eh ? What do you say ? 
With two pence halfpenny in your pocket ? " Johnson : 
" Why, yes : when I came with two pence halfpenny in 
my pocket, and thou, Davy, with three halfpence in thine.'^ 
The connection between these two men was very amusing 
to all their companions ; for the doctor seemed to claim a 
right of property in his old friend, and would allow no 
man either to blame or to praise Garrick without contra- 
. diction. Toiling years long at his Dictionary, he, with 
grim humor, could write down in it to be published to the 
world : " Gruh Street, the name of a street in London 
much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, 
and temporary poems, whence any mean production is 
called Gruh Street.'" — "Lexicographer, a writer of dic- 
tionaries, a harmless drudged 

Loving England, he loves best of all London, the great 
throbbing heart of it, where he has his home. Its mul- 
titudinous hum is the best of music to him, and there is 
no picture like the moving diorama of its streets. The 
exquisite humor of it is, that the man has no material 
stake in it all, no pecuniary interest ; once he had not 
where to lay his head ; but his pure and perfect love makes 
it all his own. There were, at that time, millionnaires in 



112 SAMUEL JOHNSOI^. 

England, but Johnson was a billionnaire. True it is that 
his estate was encumbered with patriots and whig dogs, 
who would not support his government ; with dissenters, 
who were opposed to his church ; and around it lay a 
world of foreigners, mostly fools : but all men of large 
estate have their troubles ; why should he be exempt ? 

Johnson's dread of death, often expressed, and the 
confessions of sin and supplications for mercy in his 
Prayers and Meditations, have led men to infer, too 
hastily, that the part of his life of which little is known, 
the earlier part, must have been sinful ; but there is no 
good ground for such inference. By the light of the 
known we must read the unkno^vn ; and one little event 
makes, in this case, all clear to us. To Henry White, a 
young clergyman, with whom Johnson was intimate, he 
said that he could not in general accuse himself of having 
been an undutiful son. " Once, indeed," he said, " I was 
disobedient. I refused to attend my father to Uttoxeter 
market. Pride was the source of that refusal, and the 
remembrance of it was painful. A few years ago, I de- 
sired to atone for this fault : I went to Uttoxeter in very 
bad weather, and stood, for a considerable time, bare- 
headed, in the rain, on the spot where my father's stall 
used to stand. In contrition I stood, and I hope the pen- 
ance was expiatory." This man, standing bareheaded in 
the thronged market-place on a rainy day, was then three 
score and ten years old. Half a century of busy London 
life had not trampled out of mind that one act of filial dis- 
obedience, and " the remembrance of it was painful" 
still. Surely we need inquire no further about his un- 
known sins. 

His advice to Boswell and others, often in some form 
repeated, was this : Clear your mind of cant — advice 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. 113 

good in all times ; especially good in that time when Vol- 
taire and his brood, the French philosophers, had sapped 
the foundations of faith in church and state. Devotion to 
the highest constituted authority — in a word, loyalty — had 
almost, if not altogether, ceased ; and men were busy rock- 
ing the cradle of liberty : Liberty, pretty enough till it got 
out of the cradle and grew to Licentiousness. In religion, 
the old forms remained, but were no longer instinct with 
life. Men, for the most part, did not then believe ; they 
assented merely ; and in place of the old, earnest speech, 
there was cant, which, at its best, is hollow speech ; and 
till the mind be cleared of the rubbish which produces that, 
no good thing can take root and grow there. That time, 
and Johnson's conservative work in it, are well worth at- 
tention ; but the present writer feels no call to wade in 
deep waters, and has found it safer to keep near shore, 
where he flounders less. 

We spoke, at the outset, of Johnson's essential truthful- 
ness : closely allied to this trait is another, not less remark- 
able, his perfect fearlessness. A man full of truth, and 
without fear, finds himself strangely placed in a timid, 
time-serving, canting world ; and the doctor was fortunate 
to escape from it with no worse epithet than Old Bear 
sticking to him. Of his religion, his worship in the old 
church of St. Clement Danes, his muttered prayers and 
pious ejaculations, we will not speak. Men who commune 
with the Highest may do it in their own way ; and we will 
say only that any real communion of that kind is better 
than none. 

The Man in the Iron Mask has long been interesting to 

mankind, simply because he wore a mask ,; and the interest 

has been increased fourfold by the fact, that the mask was 

not of pasteboard, but pf iron, without a crack in it. 

10** 



114 SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

Could that mask be raised, all interest in the thing hidden 
tinder it would soon cease, and the foolish would turn, with 
idle curiosity, to some other mask, eager to know what might 
be hidden there too. But the desire of the wise is other 
than this ; and in Samuel Johnson, who wore no mask, 
they find matter of abiding interest. Simple James Bos- 
well, with never-ceasing wonder, jotted down faithfully the 
many phases of this revelation of genuine manhood ; and 
we, born into another century, find the revelation a bless- 
ing ; awakening in us pity, and love, and reverence ; and 
so we rise to a higher life — to a higher life, and also to a 
healthier ; for the humor of which we spoke is a uniting 
element, wedding joy to sorrow, and high to low, and per- 
vading the whole with its cheerful sunlight. This Samuel 
Johnson, who once stood before King George and talked, 
was himself virtually a king among men. If he had been 
born to an actual throne, he had gone down to posterity as 
Samuel the Conqueror, or, perhaps, as the Tyrant. Born 
into the middle ranks of life, he is known the world over 
as a real John Bull, England's completest, of whom she, 
with good right, is proud. 



JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF 
MONTROSE. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 



The book of earliest date treating specially and directly 
of the Great Marquis, is that one entitled Memoirs of 
James Graham, Marquis of Montrose ; written originally 
in Latin, by his chaplain, the Reverend George Wishart ; 
published before the death of the subject of it, and known to 
us through a translation, issued at Edinburgh in 1 81 9. After 
this publication, nearly two centuries passed away before any 
literary man busied himself with the life of Montrose ; and 
groundless calumnies found their way into standard histo- 
ries, and became accredited, and repeated again and again. 
At last, however, Mr. Mark Napier — roused, probably, to 
wonder by the fact that his own ancestor, Archibald Lord 
Napier, a wise and stainless man, was the steadfast friend 
and counsellor of this historically sinful Montrose — felt him- 
self called on to look into the matter, and see how it really 
was. Hence his first book, Montrose and the Covenant- 
ers, two volumes, Edinburgh, 1838; which is, properly, 
a plea for Montrose, against the Covenanters ; the state- 
ments of it substantiated by original papers before un- 
cus) 



116 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

known to the public. This book exciting an interest in 
the subject of it, other facts, relating thereto, came to 
light; and Mr. Napier, in 1840, published his Life and 
Times of Montrose ; whereupon, many men being put 
on the scent, old charter chests, family records, city rec- 
ords, were searched and examined — with good results ; 
for so much appertaining to this matter came forth, that 
two volumes folio, entitled Memorials of Montrose, ed- 
ited by Mr. Napier, were published by the Maitland Club 
in 1851. Finally, we have Mr. Napier's fourth book, 
Memoirs of Montrose, two volumes, Edinburgh, 1856; 
which is the completest and best of all. There is, more- 
over, another book. Memoirs of James Graham, Marquis 
of Montrose, London, 1858, by Charles Grant, *' author 
of the Romance of War," who is, apparently, too much 
inclined to that kind of authorship. 

Of all these books, that one entitled Memorials of 
Montrose, published by the Maitland Club, is, however, 
by far the most satisfactory to one who desires to see with 
his own eyes ; for there he finds original papers, public 
and private, relating to the man himself, and to the troub- 
lous times in which he lived — papers written then, by the 
actors themselves. Studying these papers, we have before 
usj indeed, the errors and falsehoods of these writers, but 
not also the partialities and prejudices of readers and re- 
porters who have come between us and them ; and so the 
matter becomes simpler. These original errors and false- 
hoods are, indeed, an important part of the history of that 
time ; and some knowledge of them is indispensable to a 
right judgment of the man whose unhappy lot it was to 
live and work in the midst of them. 

From the books above named, and from others, a little 
story of the life of James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, 



INTKODUCTOEY. 117 

has been gathered and got into shape ; the story, interest- 
ing to the writer of it, he can therefore hope will be inter- 
esting also to the reader. 

The Scottish name, Grceme, Grahame, or Graham, is 
an old one. It was, some say, originally Grim, or Gram, 
and meant soldier, or even savage ; and if so, it is old 
enough. The matter of real interest, however, is not how 
the name originated, but how the men who bore it com- 
ported themselves through many generations : knowing 
something of this, we shall know something of the stuff 
that called itself Graham ; and it will be well for us to 
know something of this — well for us always to recognize 
the existence of such original stuff; for in it are laid 
the foundations of character, and out of it spring those 
inborn peculiarities, which the individual man can never 
root out of himself, but which he is called to govern 
and guide. 

There are legends, traditions, traces of the Graham 
from the earliest times ; serving to show, that men bear- 
ing that name were notable to their contemporaries long 
before the historian appeared to record notable deeds. In 
the early part of the twelfth century, however, there is au- 
thentic record of them : then William de Graham got, of 
King David the First, a grant of the lands of Abercorn, 
and Dalkeith, in the Lothians ; and in 1128 he witnessed 
the charter given by that king to the monks of Holyrood 
House. John, the second son of this William, appears in 
several charters of King William the Lion : and to Sir David 
de Graeme, or Graham, son of this John, the same king, 
towards the end of his long reign, granted the lands of 
Charleton and Barrowfield, near Old Montrose, in Forfar- 
shire. This Sir David is the first undoubted ancestor of 
the Great Marquis; and from lands which he acquired 



118 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MOXTROSE. 

came, in after years, the title Montrose. Another David, 
son of that one, added to the family estates the *' lands of 
DundafF and Strathcarron, of Mugdok and Strathblane," 
and was a man of note in public affairs. His son, bear- 
ing the same name, got to wife " Annabella, sister to Ma- 
lise Earl of Strathearn," and with her came the lands of 
Kincardine, in Perthshire. From this David and Anna- 
bella came Sir Patrick Graham and Sir John, Avho were 
compatriots with Sir William Wallace, famous in Scottish 
story. Sir Patrick fell at the battle of Dunbar : and Sir 
John, the Graham of Dundaff, who was called the " Richt 
Hand" of Wallace, stood and fought on many battle 
fields, and fell and died on that of Falkirk ; near which 
his tomb is still to be seen, bearing an inscription, which, 
many times renewed by pious hands, is legible to this 
present day : — 

" Here lyes Sir ,Tohn the Grame baith wight and wise ; 
Ane of the Chiefs who rescewit Scotland thrise j 
Ane better Knight not to the World was lent 
Kor was good Grame of truth and hardiment." 

The House of Montrose dates from the year 1 504, when 
William, third Lord Graham of Kincardine, was created 
Earl of Montrose : he came to death with James the Fourth 
at Flodden ; and his grandson, Robert Lord Graham, fell 
at the battle of Pinkney, in 1547. Earl John, son of this 
Robert, and grandfather of the Great Marquis, stood high 
among Scottish nobles : in 1581 he was Lieutenant of the 
Borders ; afterwards Lord High Treasurer and Lord High 
Chancellor of Scotland ; and, in 1604, Royal Commissioner 
to Parliament. Now, at last, we have come doM^n to John, 
fourth Earl of Montrose ; who, in 1595, before he attained 
to the earldom, fought a single combat, in the High Street 
of Edinburgh, with Sir John Sandilands to avenge the death 



A YOUNG LORD. 119 

of a kinsman. On the accession of Charles the First this 
earl was appointed President of the Scottish Privy Council. 
His Countess was a Ruthven, a name well known in Scot- 
tish history ; Margaret, daughter of William Ruthven, 
Earl of Gowrie, who was a prominent actor in the Raid of 
Ruthven, whereby a party of Presbyterian nobles got pos- 
session of the person of James the Sixth of Scotland, and 
held him for a time : but, the king escaping, this Ruthven, 
Earl of Gowrie, came to the scaffold and was beheaded. 
His son, the next earl of that name, brother to Margaret 
Ruthven, died also by violence. This young nobleman, 
high in favor with the Presbyterians, who looked to him 
as their future leader, lost his life in that transaction 
known as the Gowrie Conspiracy : the story of it, resting 
on the word of King James, found little credence at the 
time, and has gained none since. 

Of this marriage, the Graham to the Ruthven, came six 
children, — Lilias, Margaret, Dorothea, James, Katharine, 
Beatrix, — born in the order here named. This only son, 
James, became, in course of time, fifth Earl of Montrose, 
and first Marquis ; the Great Marquis, of whom runs our 
story. 



CHAPTER II. 

A YOUNG LORD. 

Record of the birth of James Graham was never made ; 
or, if made, it has disappeared, and cannot now be found : 
not only the precise time of his birth is unknown, but the 
place of it also. Tradition, however, whispers through 



120 JAMES GEAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

the centuries that he was born at the family mansion in 
the city of Montrose, one of the oldest burghs in Scotland ; 
its earliest charter granted by King David the First. 
Born there or not, it is certain that a part of his childhood 
was passed in that old city, or near it, and we will there- 
fore look at the place a little. In Forfarshire, on the east 
coast of Scotland, twenty-five miles or so north of the 
Frith of Tay, lies the harbor of Montrose. Narrow at its 
entrance, it expands inward to a broad basin some seven 
miles in circumference, but shallow, save where the River 
South Esk, coming down from the Highlands and running 
into the basin on its south-west side, ploughs a channel 
through it straight to the sea ; the mouth of the river 
being the harbor's entrance. On the north side of this 
entrance is a long, low peninsula, which, flanked eastward 
by the German Ocean, and westward by the waters of the 
basin, extends northward to the main ; and on it stands 
the old city of Montrose. Three little hills in it, higher 
once than now, got for it, probably, its original French 
name of Mons-trois. From the point at the entrance of 
the harbor, where is deep water for ships, the city stretches 
itself northerly along the inner side of the peninsula, the 
houses, mostly of stone, presenting their gable ends to the 
street ; one of the oldest seaport towns in Scotland, and, 
at the time of which we treat, noted for its fisheries. In 
it the Montroses had their family mansion, or town resi- 
dence ; a large building with wings at right angles with 
the front, forming, altogether, three sides of a square — in 
the form of a square or in some other form, for we cannot be 
positive ; indeed, after some collating of accounts, it remains 
uncertain whether the house was in the town or on the 
lands of Old Montrose. These lands, an ancient estate 
of the family, lie on the south-west side of the basin, just 



A YOUNG LOED. 121 

where the South Esk flows into it, and are bounded north- 
erly by that river, and easterly by the waters of the basin. 
They are low and level, save at their southern extremity, 
where rises a hillocky ridge, three hundred feet or more 
above the sea level ; and on it stands '* a bulky artificial 
eminence called Mariton Law, intended, probably, as a 
beacon-post or feudal seat of justice." From this emi- 
nence, looking eastward over the intervening land, you 
see the German Ocean ; northerly, the basin, and, across 
it, the town of Montrose ; westward, the valley of the 
South Esk ; and north-westward, looking aloft, you see 
the jagged sky-line of the Grampians. 

Here, at the family estate, the boy James saw what we 
have seen, or tried to see ; and at the town of Montrose, 
looking out Avith young eyes, he saw ships sailing to and 
fro on the German Ocean ; some of them making port at 
Montrose, or departing from it ; for there was trade to 
England, France, Holland, and the Baltic. When storms 
threatened, he saw fisher-boats scudding before wind and 
sea, fleet after fleet of them, through the narrow entrance 
into the sheltered basin, till the landing places along the 
shores of it were alive and astir ; and when the storm ceased, 
and the sun shone, he saw them spread their canvas to the 
winds again, and move seaward on their perilous quest. 
This shallow basin, exposing at low Avater large flats of 
mud and sand, was a favorite place of resort for the feath- 
ered sea tribes : from long-necked swans and solan geese 
down to the tiniest shore birds, the kinds were many. In 
their migrations to and from the north, they, like the 
fisher-boats, sought shelter here from adverse storms ; and, 
like them too, in fair weather they departed : rising in 
innumerable flocks, with wings wide-spread, and necks 
outstretched, they went on their way rejoicing in their 

11 



122 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

power of flight. All this, doubtless, and much else, the 
boy looked at, not without interest and profit ; while he 
himself attracted attention enough from simple fishermen 
and fisherwomen, dwellers by the sea and on it ; and the 
young Lord James, heir of Montrose, heard words of praise 
oftener than was good for him. 

The most stately residence of the family, however, was 
not this one at Old Montrose, but the Castle of Kincardine, 
which stood in Strathearn, Perthshire. This strath, or 
valley, of the River Earn, is one of the most fertile tracts 
of country in Scotland. Having its head in the Highlands 
at Loch Earn, it slopes down easterly, widening towards 
the Frith of Tay, and is, in fact, the commencement of that 
great valley called Strathmore, which stretches away north- 
easterly towards the sea in Forfarshire ; on one side of it 
the Ochil and Sidlaw Hills, and on the other the Gram- 
pians. On the southerly side of Strathearn, where the 
Ochils slope down to it, stood this Castle of Kincardine, 
fifteen miles south of the city of Perth. Along by the 
walls of it runs a little stream, called the Ruthven, which, 
rising in the Ochils, runs northward into the Earn. West- 
ward of Kincardine, an hour's ride or so, dwelt two of the 
young Lord's kinsmen. Sir William Graham of Braco, 
and John Graham of Ochil. Fai'ther north, in Strathearn, 
the Grahams of Balgowen, of Morphie, and of Inchbrakie, 
had their houses : to these and other of that kin, widely 
scattered in the Lowlands, but always near the hilly coun- 
try, the active boy made many visits ; riding, not as boys 
now do, in easy carriage over smooth roads, but on horse- 
back over ground where horse and rider had to be wide 
awake. The accounts of expenditures at Kincardine show 
this " Item, for twa gang schoone to Lord James' twa 
naigs 23 shs." This is under date September, 1620, when 



A YOUNG LORD. 123 

the Lord James was eight years of age ; and from that 
time onward these nags and other horses were shod often, 
and had, doubtless, exercise enough. Four years after 
that shoeing of the " naigs," there is this " Item, for 
dressing of Lord James' fensing swords 6 sh. 8 d. ; " and 
all along in these accounts there are indications of an 
active life. The boy, it appears, had his " gilded sword," 
his " brazen hagbut," his *' crossbow set with mother-of- 
pearl," his " silk-and-silver scarff;" and we can guess a 
little how it was with him. The household books show in 
cellar white wine and red, March ale and other ale, in 
plenty, but, as I note with some satisfaction, none of the 
more potent drinks. For tobacco and pipes, too, the en- 
tries are many ; and the old Earl's consumption in that 
kind was great. The widowed father drank his wine and 
ale, and sat and smoked for comfort, and could not stint 
this only son in means of enjoyment ; the sisters, some 
older, some younger, than he, petted him, the only brother, 
and made much of him. In course of time this young 
heir of Montrose would be chief of the Grahams, and 
none of that kin could be neglectful of him, even in his 
childhood ; and so this boy, with high natural gifts, placed 
in such circumstances, would feel himself called, not to 
skulk in corners, or to sit in sackcloth and ashes, but to 
stand forth and show himself always to a world willing 
to see. 

The Mojitrose household, like other households in other 
times, had its events sorrowful and joyful. In April, 1618, 
the mother died ; and within a twelvemonth of her death 
there was a wedding — sister Margaret to Archibald Lord 
Napier, son of that Baron Napier of Murchiston, famous 
as the inventor of logarithms : a wedding this of happy 
consequence, but followed, in another twelvemonth, by 



124 JAMES GRAHAM, MAEQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

one not so happy — that of the eldest sister, Lilias, to Sir 
John Colquhoun of Luss. The mother dead and gone, 
the elder sisters married and gone, the other sisters, lack- 
ing womanly guidance at home, went, one of them, Doro- 
thea, among the Napiers, under care of sister Margaret, 
and another, Katharine, among the Colquhouns, under 
care of sister Lilias. The boy James and the youngest 
girl, " the bairn Beatrix," remained, it seems, a while with 
the father, moving to and fro among the family estates, 
which were many. Two months after the marriage of 
Lilias, the Earl, as the family account books show, "rode 
to Rossdo ; " and there are also indications that the young 
Lord rode with him. Rossdhu, the seat then of Sir John 
Colquhoun of Luss, stands on a point of land jutting into 
Loch Lomond on its Avestern side ; and the Lord James, I 
suppose, was rather pleased with the scenery there. All 
around him the lake was dotted wdth islands. Looking 
down the lake, southward, where it widens, he saw it 
extending into the Lowlands, gently swelling hills covered 
with trees, along its shores. Northward, where hills pile 
themselves on hills, till the topmost are rugged, and 
jagged, and bare, he saw^ the lake, narrowing in the dis- 
tance, run into the wildest of the Highlands. Very likely, 
too, the boy, here at Rossdhu, heard a Highland story — 
how the MacGregors, who had their huts aloft there near 
the head of the lake, came down seventeen years before, 
in 1603, and met the Colquhouns in Glen Fruin, where 
the clans, with wild yells, fell to and fought like tigers, 
till our clan was almost annihilated. The boy heard this 
story if the Colquhouns were inclined to tell it. 

I said at the outset that the time and place of James 
Graham's birth are unknown ; and of his life itself, till he 
took part in public affairs, we have little knowledge. 



A YOUNG LORD. 125 

This chapter second contains, therefore, as the reader 
will perceive, many guesses at truth. But, if our mate- 
rials here are scanty, they are authentic and genuine so 
far as they go. Accounts of stewards and factors of the 
family estates, of tutors at school and university — these, 
published in the Memorials of Montrose, are hard, meagre, 
and bald ; but they are, we can believe, truthful. Things 
bought, things paid for in cash, are, in this world, for 
the most part, actually got ; and with such foundation 
for guesses a Yankee writer can account himself happy. 
In these papers, which we refer to often, the indications 
of active out-of-door life are abundant ; but of schools, or 
of reading in books, there is, up to the boy's twelfth year, 
no sign or trace. Some such reading there was, doubtless, 
but probably not much ; much of it, at such age, does not 
profit. Learning from books is learning at second hand, 
or, indeed, oftener at third or fourth ; and to get knowl- 
edge so requires maturer judgment. At last, however, 
the school days appear ; and the Lord James is established 
" in the great lodging of Sir George Elphinstone " in 
Glasgow, " near the town head" thereof, where he had a 
tutor, or " pedagog," as they spelt it then, by name Master 
William Forrett. He had also two pages, William and 
Mungo Graham, and a " domestic servitor," whose name, 
like his master's, was James Graham. There were horses 
too — for his Lordship, a " quhyt hors," which means a 
white one ; and for his servitor, " a naig." I could give 
an " Inventour of his Lordships geire in Sir George's lodg- 
ings, Glasgow," of his curtains, his countercloths, his 
cushions, his silver ware, if that could be of any interest ; 
but the reader, having little regard for gear of that kind, 
and knowing there must have been enough of it, will 
prefer rather to learn what books a young Lord, in the 
11* 



126 JAMES GKAHAM- MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

beginning of the seventeenth century, had in hand. Mas- 
ter Forrett, giving an account of articles in his keeping 
when his pupil left Glasgow, adds to it this rather inter- 
esting bit of information : "As for the Historye wrettin 
by Sir Walter Kalye, my Lord himself conveyed it to St. 
Androes at his Lordship's first thither going ; and as for 
these buikes, whilk I had in borrowing of his Lordship in 
this toune, I have delyvered the same to the laird of 
Inshbraikie." The list of books which this tutor had in 
borrowing is as follows, namely : " Two volumes of Label- 
licus Universal Historye in latin ; Camerarius his Living 
Librarye ; Ane treatise of the Orders of Knighthoode ; 
The lyfe and death of Queen Mary ; Godfrye de Bulloigne 
his historye ; The Historye of Zenophon in latin ; The 
workes of Seneca with Lipsius Commentar." The History 
of Sir Walter Raleigh — his History of the World prob- 
ably — his Lordship, it seems, had a special regard for, 
himself conveying it to St. Andrew*s. These books the 
young Lord had, and some others too, doubtless ; but he 
did not have quarterly reviews, monthly magazines, morn- 
ing and evening newspapers, novels of human life, fash- 
ionable or unfashionable ; which fact we will take into 
account in estimating his chance of attaining to accom- 
plished manhood. 

While my Lord was at school in Glasgow, the Earl, his 
father, spent some time in the vicinity at his castle or 
"strong tower" of Mugdok, standing near a small lake 
of that name, and only an hour's ride or so northerly from 
that city. He ^vrites, under date Mugdok, 28th June, 
1625, to Laurence Grahame, his factor of Kincardine : 
*' I doubt not but ye have been cairfull in causing haist 
the making of my doghter Beatrix hir goune, as I directit 
you. I have sent this bearer, Harie Blacwod, to bring hir 



A YOUNG LORD. 127 

to me, as he will schaw you ; " and then he ordered the 
tapestry in his upper chamber at Kincardine taken down, 
and packed well, and sent to him at Mugdok, which indi- 
cates that he and his little daughter Beatrix intended to 
remain there a while. A while he remained there in his 
strong tower, but not long any where in this world. The 
Earl had been inactive for some years, and probably ailing ; 
and after his return from Mugdok he grew worse. In the 
beginning of November, 1626, the Lord James was sum- 
moned home to a death-bed ; and on the 14th day of that 
month the Earl, his father, died. Thereupon the Grahams, 
and those connected with them, gathered themselves to 
the funeral ; and for many days, according to the fashion 
of that time on such occasions, there was feasting in the 
halls of Kincardine. " The Dyet, and ordinary expenses, 
of Lord James's householding in Kincardine" on this 
occasion show enormous consumption of viands, running 
on till the 3d of January ; for not till that date, fifty days 
after the death, was the funeral " accomplishit." From 
among the guests then present the young heir chose his 
curators or guardians ; namely, his brothers-in-law. Lord 
Napier and Sir John Colquhoun ; his cousin, the Earl of 
Wigton ; his uncle, William Graham of Braco ; Robert 
Graham of Morphie ; William Graham of Claverhouse ; 
David Graham of Fintrie ; John Graham of Ochil ; Pat- 
rick Graham of Inchbrakie ; and John Graham of Bal- , 
go wan ; kinsmen all of them. 

My Lord, who had now, surely, guardians enough to 
guide him, "rode to St. Andrews" on the 23d of January, 
1627, and, as appears by the records of the "University, 
entered himself as student there on the 26th. His private 
tutor in college was Master John Lambye — his tutor 
probably, but certainly his pursebearer and accountant; 



128 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

for he jotted down faithfully items of expenditure there, 
which, under title " Maister Johne Lambyes Compts," 
have now got publishment in the Memorials of Mon- 
trose, filling forty pages of it. We give here a few of 
these items in sequence, as they occur in the " Compts." 

" Item the first of July to ane boy of Balgowans for 
carrying ane doge from my Lord to Balgowan 8 sh. 

Item the secund day to ane auld man called James Gel- 
lerd, and his wyfe, begging from my Lord at his chamber 
12 sh. 

Item to the drummer of St. Andrews proclaiming the 
silver arrow to be shott for 12 sh. 

Item to the poor that week at the brod 6 sh. 

Item at the college gat 4 sh. 

Item to some uther poor 2 sh. 

Item the fift of July given to ane servant of my Lord 
Wigtouns cumming with ane letter to my Lord 3 sh. 

Item the nynth day, my Lord being to produce the silver 
arrow, for ane shoulder of mutton to his breakfast 6 sh. 8 d. 

Item at supper that nicht with the rest of the archers, 
depursed, besyde that wich every archer gave, 5 lib 8 sh. 

Item to the ammer [marker] that day 12 sh. 

Item the tenth day, efter the winning of the silver arrow 
my Lord having dyned in the fields and supped in Wil- 
liam Geddes with the archers, his Lordships losse 3 lib 
4 sh." 

So these accounts run on, showing us much of college 
life out of doors ; showing us, in the last item quoted 
above, that my Lord, in the year 1629, won, at the 
Archery Club, the annual prize, a silver arrow, of which 
there is also other evidence. That item on the ninth day, 



A YOUNG LOKD. 129 

" my Lord being to produce the silver arrow," indicates 
that he had won it at the annual trial in the preceding 
year, and held it. Besides this shooting with the archers, 
there was playing at golf, a favorite sport in that time, 
flying of hawks, and hunting. In all these the young 
Lord seems to have been among the foremost. We note, 
too, with some satisfaction, that he was open-handed 
always to the poor. At the " onlouping," or leaping into 
the saddle ; "at the college gate," and at other gates ; 
" at the kirk door " — every where he gives to the needy ; 
and Master Lambye jots down his items of cash paid, to 
make all square to the young man's curators ; always, too, 
my Lord gives to " the Broad at the Kirk." Broad means 
hoard, and the Broad was, I suppose, a place of deposit 
for contributions. At kirk my Lord, as I am pleased to 
see, was very constant in attendance ; therefore that he 
sometimes entered it bunch of flowers in hand or in button- 
hole, attracting attention, shall be small blame to him. 
Of flowers, indeed, the young Lord seems to have been 
fond : some were paid for by cash, as Master Lambye 
testifies ; and many probably paid for by thanks, of which 
Master Lambye made no account. 

St. Andrew's, a famous old city, its University the oldest 
in Scotland, was in its prime a hundred years before this 
young chief of the Grahams saw it. Its history, including 
the history of notable things done in it, would be, for one 
thing, the history of ecclesiastical rule in Scotland. Its 
cathedral and other church buildings towered aloft for 
ages, till they and their inmates ceased to serve the living 
God ; and then the stern reformer came and laid strong 
hands on them, and they fell. The young Lord, with his 
ancient name and ancestral estates, found these ruins of 
long-established things suggestive certainly, if not un- 



130 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

pleasant. But he was not of moody, brooding nature ; 
and the old city, standing on its rocky ridge, jutting into 
the sea, looked out northward over low, level, sandy 
grounds, the best golf grounds in Scotland ; and the young 
Lord, often among the players there, could strike his ball 
into its holes with fewer strokes than the most of them, 
and so was often a winner. Winner or not, he was always 
ready for the trial ; and in these sports of his boyhood he 
fostered that daring spirit to which he afterwards gave 
expression in verse : — 

" He either fears his fate too much, 
Or his deserts are small, 
Who fears to put it to the touch. 
To gain or lose it all." 

In these accounts — accounts of Master William Forrett 
at Glasgow and Master John Lambye at St. Andrew's — 
there is nowhere any sign or symptom of the thing called 
sowing wild oats, which is a waste of vital energies ; but, 
instead thereof, we see the exuberance of youth safely 
invested for future use. The reader, who begins to feel 
an interest in this boy, will be willing to know something 
of his journeys to and fro among his kinsfolks ; for always 
in his vacations he goes to them. His entry at college, as 
we have seen, was in the last of January, 1627; and in 
the following month of March we find him in Edinburgh, 
where he was *' served heir " to his father, and invested 
with the family estates. After a week or two with sister 
Margaret and her husband. Lord Napier, in Edinburgh, or 
at their Castle of Murchiston hard by it, he returned to 
college studies and college sports till the vacation of the 
next July, when he came again into this Napier household, 
one of the best households in Scotland. Sister Margaret 
was a handsome woman — handsome, at least, in the eyes 



A YOUNG LORD. 131 

of her husband. The good old Lord, many years her 
senior, was very happy with her : " a woman religious, 
chaste, and beautiful," he says. Sister Dorothea, well 
placed in this household, was, probably, at this time already 
engaged to wed. 

In the latter days of August, the young Lord, leaving 
these sisters, went across the country westward to the 
banks of Loch Lomond, to see his other sisters. Kath- 
arine and Beatrix, living there at Rossdhu, under the same 
roof with Sir John Colquhoun, were not out of harm's way ; 
but they were at this time, 1627, mere children, Katharine, 
elder of the two, only thirteen, as I reckon. The Lord 
James, though among friends at Rossdhu, was apparently 
in a destitute condition — destitute in one respect at least. 
His " domestic servitor," James Graham, writes to James 
Duncan, factor of Mugdok, under date " Rossdo 2nd Sep- 
tember 1627 at nicht : " '* I have taken occasione to wreit 
these few lynes to you desyring you maist earnestlie to 
send my Lords buits and schone with the bearer if possible 
they can be redie ; and if ye cannot gett bothe the buitts 
and schoone redie to send with the bearer, I will desyre 
you to send any of them that are redie so farr. As I wreit 
to you before, my Lord has naither buits nor schone that 
he can put on for the present." I guess my Lord had had 
a tramp in the Highlands Avhich look down on Rossdhu ; 
else why such extreme need of boots and shoes ? We are 
rather pleased to learn that the factor at Mugdok did soon 
— to wit, on the 16th of the same month — send to my 
Lord at Garscube " ane pair boitts, and twa pair schoone ; 
also ane pair ryding gluiffs, and twa pair scheverons ; " 
scheverons being, I think, what young bucks now call kids, 
or something of that kind. Garscube was one of the family 
estates, distant a half-day's ride southerly from Rossdhu — 



132 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

a half-day's ride, or more, if my Lord made his pace to 
suit that of the sisters, who probably rode with him. 

Let us note here that the factors of the family estates, 
the pages and servants, were, for the most part, Grahams ; 
showing that Scotland, even in the Lowlands, was clan- 
nish then ; showing, too, that subordination, servitude, 
was not degradation, and that the relations between man 
and man were, in some respects, better in that time than 
they are in this present one. Men did not then, as now, 
sell their birthright for a mess of pottage, even when the 
birthright was only a right to serve a superior. Democracy 
was then, indeed, beginning to assert its rights, but it had 
not become rampant with falsehoods. As a feature of that 
time, too, we will note, further, that my Lord had at 
St. Andrew's a runner, by name John Mewros, whose 
wages were paid regularly. There are entries also for his 
expenses " running one week to the west countrie," and 
for running other weeks elsewhere ; showing, what, indeed, 
we know otherwise, that postal arrangements were then 
very imperfect. 

John Lambye's accounts for the year 1627 are missing, 
or, as merchants say, mislaid ; and we know, therefore, 
only that in October the Sophomore was with the Earl of 
Wigton at Cumbernauld, and in December with the Na- 
piers in Edinburgh. Cumbernauld is in the easternmost 
part of Dumbartonshire, fifteen miles from Glasgow ; and 
the Earl of Wigton, one of the boy's curators, was the son 
of Lady Lilias Graham, sister of the late Earl of Montrose, 
a lady much interested in the Kirk of Scotland, and very 
active in its cause. In April of the next year the young 
Lord was among the Napiers again, to attend a wedding 
in which he felt some interest — the wedding of Dorothea 
to Sir James Rollo of Duncruib. After the marriage festiv- 



A YOUNG LOKD. 



133 



ities, held in Edinburgh, or at the Napiers' Castle of Mur- 
chiston, near the south-west gate of the city, there was a 
wedding party going first to Carnok, the seat of George 
Bruce, Esq., in the west of Fifeshire ; thence to Stirling and 
to the Castle of Kincardine. After a call on his kinsman, 
Graham of Ochil, my Lord, before the middle of May, was 
at his college again in " Sainct Androis," as they spell it ; 
ailing a little I think, having feasted too much on this 
joyous occasion perhaps ; for the 24th of that month is 
noted as " the beginning of my Lord's sickness." On the 
28th, Master John Lambye, becoming alarmed, went to 
Dundee for Doctor MauU, who came and remained watch- 
ing the case some days, till he, too, became alarmed, and 
called in a Doctor Arnott for consultation. The sickness 
was certainly a serious one, apparently a high fever ; for 
a barber came in, and was paid twelve shillings sixpence 
" for taking off my Lords heire," which seems a high 
charge till we recoUect that a shilling Scot is only the 
twelfth part of a shilling sterling. Yet the man was well 
paid, for a shilling sterling could buy more then than it 
can now ; it could buy, for instance, a whole leg of mutton. 
But my Lord, who never wasted the substance of him 
in riotous living, had always good recuperative powers, 
and he was soon convalescent. On the 21st of June there 
was " paid to James Pef s dochtor for my Lord's brakfasts 
in bred and milk that week 28 sh. ; " and a week later 
my Lord, in need of some in-door amusement, was *' play- 
ing at cards," a kind of play to which he was little inclined 
when in health, though he did sometimes take a hand with 
some of the old fogie Grahams, to whom, perhaps, such 
play had become one of the necessaries of life. On the 
4th of July he was out of doors, and probably quite well ; 
for he was then among the archers again with strength to 
12 



134 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

bend the bow. While my Lord fasted in this sickness, 
others in his household feasted, it seems ; for James Pet's 
daughter, who provided at the time, brought in an abun- 
dance. There were many visitors, I suppose, who, accord- 
ing to the hospitable fashion of that old time, came in to 
bed and board. 

The long vacation began in July ; and my Lord, after a 
day on the race-course at Cupar, near to St. Andrews, was 
off again to his kinsmen, the Grahams of Ochil, of Claver- 
house, and of Morphie. On the 16th of August he gave 
" to the poor at the gate of Kinnaird ; " and he gave also, 
as I believe, a pretty word or two to the daughters of the 
house ; and Magdalene, the youngest of them, probably 
said to herself: This young man is very comely. This 
vacation extended from July to November ; and the young 
Lord, all through it, rode from house to house among his 
kin, having with him, at one time, all his sisters — all 
except, perhaps, Margaret, who probably died before this 
time. She was, as the Scripture saith, a crown to het 
husband ; "a woman religious, chaste, beautiful, and my 
chief joy in this world " — a beautiful eulogy, occurring, 
as it does incidentally, in a letter written by Lord Napier 
after her death, treating of quite other matters. By the 
accounts of James Graham, the domestic servitor, rendered 
to Lawrence Graham, factor of Kincardine, it appears 
that my Lord " came fra Braco to Drumfad on Tysday, at 
evin, the 28th of October 1628 years, accumpaneit with 
the Laird and Lady Luss and the rest of his Lordship's 
sisters ; " and the next day there were at dinner the " saids 
personnes," with Lord Wigton and others ; in all, eighteen, 
besides " sex boyis." The same day, after dinner, the 
party rode to Kincardine Castle, and remained there till 
*' Fry day the last of October," when the " foresaids per- 



A YOUNG LORD. 135 

sonnes, with Glenegles and his servands," came " fra 
Kincardine to Drumfad" again. Gleneagles, Haldane of 
Gleneagles, had his house in a little glen among the Ochil 
Hills, where eagles looked down on it from their eyries, 
and where the little River Ruthven starts on its way to the 
Earn, running, as it goes, close by the walls of Kincar- 
dine. " Some gentlewomen that resortit to my Lady 
Luss " made the dinner party at Drumfad, on Saturday, a 
large one ; and the six boys had again their dinner and 
supper. On this day, at even, the pleasure party left 
Drumfad, and went, probably, to the Castle of Kincardine. 
Drumfad, evidently near the castle, Mr. Napier guesses to 
be a farm-house ; but the accounts of payments there in- 
dicate, rather, a place of more public resort ; something 
like what we now call " a watering place ; " but whatever 
it may have been, public or private, my Lord, spending 
his holidays with his cousin Wigton, his neighbor Glen- 
eagles, his sisters, some other gentlewomen, and " sex 
boyis," was recreating himself as well in the seventeenth 
century, as most young men do, or attempt to do, that 
kind of thing in the nineteenth. 

Early in November, his vacation being over, Montrose 
returned to St. Andrews ; where he studied, I suppose, as 
much as was needful ; and where he certainly played at 
golf, and shot with the archers often, and was sometimes 
abroad with hawk and hound. But the reader will bear in 
mind always, that only by means of cash payments do we 
know any thing of the life at college ; when Master Lam- 
bye pays, then he jots down what he paid for, but at all 
other times, and of all other things, he is silent to us. 
So, the Archbishop of St. Andrews, John Spottiswood, 
living at Darsie, in the neighborhood of the city, we know 
that my Lord made acquaintance with him by this " Item 



136 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

22d, (June, 1629,) my Lord being invited to Dairsie by 
the Archbishop of St. Andrews given for thre hired horses 
24 sh." So, too, we learn that he made acquaintance with 
the minister of St. Andrews, by this item which occurs in 
July when the vacation comes again, " Item, the furniture 
of my Lord's chamber being transported to Mr. George 
Wishart's house, given to the servants there 24 sh." This 
Wishart was the same who wrote the biography of Mon- 
trose, which we mentioned at the outset ; and it is rather 
remarkable that he does not even allude in it to the college 
days at St. Andrews. 

During the next four months the young Lord was 
very busy. The old homestead at Montrose was put in 
order : an account of the factor there shows, that certain 
slaters " mendit all the sklait work of aid Montrose, ex- 
cept the towr, the baik-house, the brew-house, and the 
kitching ; which they refusit " to do till the wood-work of 
the roofs should have been first put in order. " So they 
mendit the greit house, the chalmers on the south syde of 
the cloas," (or yard,) " the porter-ludge, the gardin chalmer, 
and the girnal hous ; " and the slaters having done their 
w^ork were paid for it. My Lord, while this work was 
going on, rode about among his kinsmen, and was often 
with his curators, and some interesting affair was getting 
under way apparently. On the 21st of August we find 
in the accounts this " Item, in Kinnaird given to the 
servants 13 lib. 16 sh. 8d. ;" rather liberal, indicating 
some extraordinary occasion ; and at Claverhouse, Ochil, 
Braco, Inchbrakie, Duncruib, Cumbernauld, wherever 
the young Lord went, servants had reason to be thank- 
ful ; and nurses, who, like that typical one in Romeo and 
Juliet, were ready with their word, got hands full to stop 
their tongues. On Sunday, 18th October, he was at the 



A YOUNG LORD. 137 

Kirk of Kinnaird ; and the next day and the next, at the 
Castle of Kinnaird, where the servants got 33 lib. ; on the 
28th letters were sent off in all directions, especially to 
the *' west countrie," and to Strathearn. Finally we come 
to this very interesting "Item, the said day (Novr 10th, 
1629), given to the broad in the Kirk of Kinnaird at my 
Lord's marriage 29 sh. ; " and Mistress Magdalene Carnigie, 
youngest daughter of Sir David Carnigie of Kinnaird, had 
then a husband who, as fair readers may know, if they 
will count on their fingers, was just seventeen ; and she, 
the bride, we will hope, was at least sixteen ; though we 
have no means of knowing her age. 

A few days before the wedding, my Lord was in Aber- 
deen, and gave money to the " porter of the college ther 
for ringing the bells ; " and also to the town officers, " my 
Lord having been made burgess." What my Lord's spe- 
cial business was there at that time, appears from another 
item on the 2d of December, given to " ane who brocht 
my Lord's portrait from Aberdeen." This portrait, paint- 
ed by George Jamieson, " the Scottish Vandyke," still 
hangs in the halls of Kinnaird ; and Mr. Mark Napier, to 
whom we are indebted for much else, gives us an engrav- 
ing of it : a boyish face, the features of it just pushing 
towards manhood ; the nose alone having arrived : the hair, 
parted at top of the head, falls in waves over the ears, 
and the large gray eyes look out full and clear. A boy of 
delicate organization, we should say ; delicate, but healthy ; 
and indeed, with all the strength and endurance of his ma- 
turer years, there are indications throughout of such or- 
ganization ; in his aversion to tobacco ; in his inclination 
to be in open air ; and in his sicknesses, with rapid and 
complete recovery. The painter inscribed on this portrait 
Anno 1629, uEtaiis 17 : and this inscription, confirmed by 
12-^' 



138 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

other facts, shows that Montrose was born in the year 1612 ; 
probably on some day early in the autumn of it. 

The history of James Graham, Earl of Montrose, for 
the next seven years after his marriage, is to us almost a 
blank; for books of expenditures, and other documents 
relating to these years, are altogether wanting. The mar- 
riage contract, still to be seen, shows that Sir David Car- 
nigie agreed, on his part, " to entertain and sustain in 
house with himself the said noble Earl and Mistress Mag- 
dalene Carnigie, his promised spouse, during the space of 
three years next after their marriage : " and there is no 
ground to suppose that he failed to perform his agreement, 
though the marriage brought boys into the house faster 
than he had any reason to expect. This husband was too 
young, it seems, to commence housekeeping on his own 
account and risk ; but he was, as we have seen, of active 
disposition, and these years, of which we know little, or 
nothing, were certainly not years of idleness. Dogberry's 
assertion, that reading and writing come by nature, has found 
little favor among men of experience in that kind of busi- 
ness ; and there being evidence enough that Montrose came 
to be *' well-learned," the most accomplished Scottish noble- 
man of his time, we need not doubt that he came to schol- 
arship, as he came to horsemanship, by putting himself 
down to the work. Indeed, our interest in this young man 
lies mainly in this ; that he, born to an honored name, and 
to an Earldom, would not be a falsehood, but would re- 
spond manfully to the call of his name and place. 

Imagination, let loose, could picture the life of the 
young couple there at Kinnaird, Old Montrose with its 
farm-yards, close at hand ; but imagination, without any 
finger-posts of fact to point the way for it, is apt to go 
astray. Instead of going astray in an attempt to portray 



A YOUNG LORD. 139 

that particular life, let us rather look at life in general, and 
see a little how it was at that time in Scotland. Clanship, 
in the middle and southern Lowlands, was giving way be- 
fore a nationality forming itself by the intercourse which 
internal commerce introduced and quickened : forming it- 
self by commerce, but still more by the Presbyterianism 
of John Knox ; for the Kirk with its Sessions, its Pres- 
byteries, its Synods, and its General Assemblies, had knit 
the people there into -the closest union. Still, however, 
the country people, even in these Lowlands, were to some 
extent clannish, looking for guidance to their hereditary 
lords ; while in some of the northern shires, and through- 
out the Highlands, the chiefs of clans were a kind of pa- 
triarchal tyrants, governing themselves, and their clansmen, 
by a few simple traditional laws. Justice then and there 
did not drag its slow length along ; it had no cumbrous 
apparatus ; there were no flaws in its indictments ; and its 
judgments, pronounced and executed by the chiefs, were 
swift and sure. In the central Lowlands, on the contrary, 
especially in the larger cities, the relations of man to man 
had already become complicated, involved, what we may 
call artificial ; and lawyers like Archibald Johnston could 
find work enough in tangling and untangling human afiairs. 
Scottish noblemen, in that time, lived, for the most part, 
on their own estates, among their own people, to whom 
they were bound by many ties. Some of these noblemen, 
living in parts of Scotland remote from the central Low- 
lands, held themselves, by long habit of governing, almost 
as sovereign : so, a Marquis of Huntly, Chief of the Gor- 
dons, when at court in the reign of James the Sixth, stood 
with covered head ; and, when reminded by an officer of 
the uncourtly fact, he excused himself by saying : " I have 
just come from a place where all men take off their bonnets 



140 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

to me." Still, powerful as these nobles were, high as 
they held themselves, the relation between them and 
their subordinates was in most respects a cheerful one ; 
a relation founded on duty, faithfulness on both sides — 
service in return for service. Servants were born into the 
family, and grew old in it, and died in it ; and the highest 
head in the family bowed itself, often with tears, at the 
death-bed. Willing, faithful service fosters a humorous, 
beautiful freedom ; and these old Scottish servants had 
prescriptive rights, which they sometimes asserted in a 
way that would astonish heads of families in our own 
land of theoretical liberty and equality. This kind of 
relation between high and low continued long in Scotland, 
and in some nooks of it it still lingers, loath to depart.* 
But our business is more specially with the Grahams, 
who, though clannish, were a scattered race, having their 
dwelling places in Forfarshire, Perthshire, Stirlingshire, 
Dumbartonshire, and elsewhere ; the minor chiefs having 
their houses, some of them, on the slopes where high lands 
come down to low ; but the greater part of the clan, the 
rank and file of it, lived, intermingled with Robertsons 
and Stewarts, in the southern parts of the Perthshire 
Highlands. The young chief of them, the Graham of 
Montrose, had, through his kinsmen, and the marriage of 
his sister Lilias to a Colquhoun, early opportunities of 
acquaintance with life in the Highlands. Born and bred, 
as he was, in the low country, the young Lord had still, 
I think, some touch of the mountaineer in him ; and, 
though training himself in all ways to grace his Lowland 
Earldom, he had always an innate liking, a love of simple 
elemental forces — forces on which a genuine man will 

* See that amusing and instructive book, Reminiscences of Scottish Life 
and Character, by Dean Ramsay. Boston : Ticknor & Fields. 1861. 



A YOUNG LOKD. 141 

stand when his hour of trial comes : shake him then 
who can. 

But let us return to the young couple at Kinnaird ; of 
whom, however, we know little — indeed only this, that 
little Grahams were born of them : two, both boys, came 
to light within two years after the marriage, and got for 
names John and James — the same names that father and 
paternal grandfather bore ; and, that not long after the 
birth of the second, the father went abroad to travel on 
the Continent. In the latter days of October, 1632, he 
was in Edinburgh, where he then signed papers ; one of 
them for four hundred merks to be given by him " for the 
help of the building and library of the College of Glas- 
gow," and another for settlement of some matters with 
the Earl of Perth. On the 22d day of that October, the 
young Earl — not then of age, for he signs by consent of 
his curators — was certainly in Edinburgh ; but he was 
not there at the coronation of Charles the First, in June, 
1633 — a splendid pageant, in which almost all the nobles 
of Scotland took part. Our young Lord, however, even 
if at home, would hardly have been willing to show him- 
self in public at that time, for there was then sorrow and 
shame among the Grahams. In the autumn of 1631, Sir 
John Colquhoun of Luss, leaving his wife and many chil- 
dren, disappeared from Rossdhu, taking with him Katharine 
Graham, his wife's sister. In October, 1632, the same 
month that Montrose was in Edinburgh, public process 
of law was commenced against Sir John and his valet 
Carlippis, " a necromancer," in which they were charged 
with sorcery and necromancy, according to the belief of 
that time ; having, by means of " certain philtra of 
poisons of love, or poisonable and enchanted tokens of 
love, especially a Jewell of gold, set with divers pretious 



142 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTKOSE. 

diamonds, or rubies, whicli was poisoned and intoxicat by 
tbe said necromancer," and given by Sir John *' to the 
said Lady Katharine Graham, his sister-in-law," whereby 
she "was so bewitched and transported" that she fell — 
a victim to these and other " devilish arts." That devil- 
ish arts, necromantic or not, were used, is very probable ; 
and poor Katharine, traced to London, could be traced no 
farther, and was seen no more among her kindred. How 
she lived ; where, and when, and how miserably she died, 
is all unknown. Sir John was declared an outlaw by the 
courts, was excommunicated by the church, and did not 
appear in Scotland again for many years. Mr. Napier 
thinks that the Earl's errand abroad was to search for 
sister Katharine. It may have been so, or not ; but his 
departure from Scotland was probably hastened by her 
flight from it ; and he went, it seems, soon after the 
commencement of that public process. Of his travels or 
doings on the Continent little is known. Thomas Saint- 
serf, a writer of that time, and a follower and eulogist of 
Montrose, says (as quoted by Mr. Napier) : *' he travelled 
France and Italy, where he made it his work to pick 
up the best of their qualities necessary for a person of 
honor ; " and *' he spent three years in France and Italy, 
and would have surveyed the rarities of the East, if his 
domestic affairs had not obliged his return home, which 
chanced at the time the late rebellion began to peep out." 
That this traveller was in Italy is shown, conclusively, by 
the Records of the English College at Rome, which con- 
tain this statement : "On the 27th March, 1635, two 
Scottish Earls, Angus and Montrose, in company with four 
other noble gentlemen of that nation, were entertained 
in our refectory with all the honors due to their rank." 
These little scraps of information are all that have been 
found relating to that time of travel. 



A YOUNG LORD. 143 

Returning from the Continent some time in the year 
1636, Montrose stopped in London a while, and was pre- 
sented at court by his countryman, the Marquis of Hamil- 
ton, who seems to have done him no good office on that 
occasion; misinforming him in regard to the King's feel- 
ing towards Scotland and Scotchmen, and, on the other 
hand, influencing the King against Montrose by mis- 
representation of him. That Hamilton, a double dealer 
often, was double at this time, is not unlikely. Himself 
a favorite with the King, he would not be unwilling to 
keep this young Earl, just coming on the stage, in the 
background. His Majesty, influenced by Hamilton or 
not, received the Earl coldly, gave him his hand to kiss 
in silence, and turned away. That this young nobleman, 
whose chief virtue was not humility, went homeward not 
altogether pleased with a sovereign who had been so 
ungracious, we need not doubt ; nevertheless, he went 
quietly among his friends and kinsfolk, and remained 
with them a twelvemonth or more, taking no part in pub- 
lic aff'airs. 

When the subject of a biography is living quietly, he is 
then, often, in the happiest time for himself, but not for 
his biographer, who finds such time a barren one ; and 
here, in want of other matter, I will place a little event 
which cannot be dated otherwise than as prior to 1640. 
In that year William Lithgow published a poem, which 
he dedicated to the Earl of Montrose, and said in his 
dedication : " This present work, in its secret infancy, 
was both seen and perused by your Lordship." It was, 
probably, in the year 1636, when my Lord had just re- 
turned from his travels, that the poet did him the honor 
to submit to his judgment a poem, in manuscript, en- 
titled, " The Gushing Tears of Godly Sorrow ; containing 



144 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

the Causes, Conditions, and Remedies of Sin ; depending 
mainly upon Contrition and Confession ; and seconded 
with Sacred and Comfortable Passages under the Mourn- 
ing Canopy of Tears and Repentance." His Lordship, 
doubtless, saw this manuscript in its secret infancy ; but 
that he read it too, as the author asserts, is not so certain ; 
for authors often mistake in regard to perusal in such 
cases. 

And now, being tempted, I will indulge in a philosoph- 
ical reflection. The men, of whom some knowledge re- 
mains among mankind long after they themselves have 
passed away, may be divided into two classes. The first 
class, small in number, consists of men, who, by force of 
their own merits, have come down from remote times to 
this present day, and remain a precious possession to us. 
The second class, a much larger one, is composed of men, 
who, by accident or otherwise, hooked themselves on to 
their betters ; and so have been brought down to us, often 
to our great wonder : in this class belongs William Lith- 
gow with his gushing tears. 



CHAPTER HI. 

A COVENANTER HEART AND HAND. 

The Earl of Montrose, coming home from his travels in 
the year 1636, found there a distracted country. The long 
struggle between the Kings of Scotland, James the Sixth 
and Charles the First, and its Kirk, had at last come to 
the verge of open quarrel. These Kings, desiring to be 
masters of Scotland, saw, in a dim way, that they must, 



A COVENANTER HEART AND HAND. 145 

first of all, find means to govern its church, which, hold- 
ing Christ to be its only head, claimed to be independent 
of all human potentates ; hence their long-continued efforts 
to introduce Episcopacy, whose head is the King. But 
Episcopacy, with its forms and ceremonies, was, in its 
best estate, obnoxious to the people of Scotland ; and 
now when its Liturgy, altered by Archbishop Laud, had 
been announced for service in all the churches, indignant 
Scotland was all astir ; for the alterations of Laud, mak- 
ing the Liturgy still more formal and ceremonious, tended, 
as the ministers of the Kirk asserted and believed, towards 
the hated Romish church, mother of abominations. The Rev- 
erend Robert Baillie, writing under date January 29, 1637, 
says : " These which are averse from the ceremonies, where- 
of there are great numbers, yea, almost all our nobilitie and 
gentrie of both sexes, count that Booke little better than 
the Masse ; and are farr on a way to seperate from all 
who will embrace it." Six months later, on the 23d of 
July, when, by order of the King, " the Black Service 
Book" was being read in the old church of St. Giles at 
Edinburgh, loud cries arose among the women there : 
"Wolf," "Crafty fox," "Beastly-bellied god," "Ill- 
hanged thief; " and Jenny Geddes, vehement fugle-woman 
of feminine Scotland, hurled her cutty-stool ; which, un- 
fortunately, did not hit ; leaving it uncertain to this present 
day whether she aimed at the Bishop or the Dean. Other 
stools flew about ; the church dignitaries fled before the 
storm ; and St. Giles emptied itself into the street quicker 
than ever before. In Glasgow, " at the out-going of the 
church, about thirty or forty of our honestest women, in 
one voice, before the bishops and magistrates, did fall in 
railing, cursing, scolding, with clamours, on Mr. William 
Annan," who, in his sermon, had spoken in defence of the 

13 



146 JAMES GEAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

Liturgy. In the evening of the same day this minister, 
imprudently going abroad, "is no sooner on the causey 
[or street] at nine o'clock in a mirk night, with three or 
four ministers with him, but some hundreds of enraged 
women of all qualities are about him with neaves, and 
staves, and peats, but no stones : they beat him sore ; his 
cloake, ruffe, hatt, were rent ; however, upon his cryes, 
and candles set out from many windows, he escaped all 
bloody wounds ; yet he was in great danger of killing. 
This tumult was so great that it was not thought meet to 
search either in plotters or actors of it ; for numbers of 
the best qualitie would have been found guiltie." ^' One 
minister, however, according to the same authority, did 
succeed in reading the Service Book, though only to a 
small congregation. " Mr. D, Whitefurd, on Sunday, [in 
Edinburgh], went to the pulpit with his pistoles, his ser- 
vants, and, as report goes, his wife with weapons. He 
entered earlie when there were few people ; he closed the 
doors and read his service ; but when he had done he 
could scarce gett to his house ; all flocked about him, 
and, had he not fled, he might have been killed : since, he 
durst not try that play over again." Thus the women, 
listening to their beloved minister's denunciations of the 
Black Service Book, became excited, and broke out into 
open tumult of violence ; but men and women of other 
ranks up to the highest, though less vehement and more 
decorous than Jenny Geddes and her class, were equally 
decided in opposition to Episcopacy. 

This temper of the Scottish people, in regard to their 
religion, is very old and very remarkable. Four centuries 
before the time of which we treat, King Alexander the 

* The Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie, A. M., Principal of the 
University of Glasgow. Edinburgh, 1841. 



A COVENANTER HEART AND HAND. 147 

Second, when the Pope of Rome proposed to send a 
legate into Scotland, wrote to him, " that he did not re- 
member a legate being sent into Scotland, and thanked 
God there was no need of one at present : and that as 
neither his father, nor any of his ancestors, had suffered 
any to enter Scotland, he would likewise take care to pre- 
vent the same : and advised him not to venture, for he," 
Alexander, " had an ungovernable people whose violence 
would not be restrained." ^'' Alexander was evidently a 
king, and had some knowledge of the people he was called 
to govern and guide. Scotland, indeed the whole of Great 
Britain, never needed a real king more than in 1637: in 
Ireland there was Roman Catholicism ; in England Puri- 
tanism ; and in Scotland Presbyterianism ; all active, while 
over all Episcopalianism was dominant, and striving to 
keep itself so. To complicate matters, Queen Henrietta, 
a lively and unwise Frenchwoman, M^as a Roman Catholic, 
and had her chapel ; and, unfortunately, there was no real 
king in this Israel. But our business is specially with 
Scotland and matters and things there ; and with them, 
indeed, only in so far as they relate to James Graham, Earl 
of Montrose. He, surrounded by Presbyterian friends and 
relatives, looked into all this with much interest, doubtful 
perhaps of the part he should take in it ; but placed as he 
was in the foremost ranks, of active disposition, a born 
leader of men, he could not long be doubtful. Ministers 
and Elders of the Kirk, appointed by the Presbyteries for 
that purpose, were at work making converts to the cause, 
and we may be sure that the young chief of the Grahams 
was not neglected ; we have indeed direct evidence to that 
effect. It was, says Robert Baillie, " the canniness of 

* Maitland's History of Scotland. 



148 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

Rothes brought in Montrose ; " and he himself said, years 
afterwards, to Mr. Robert Murrey, minister of Methven : 
" You were an instrument in bringing me to this cause." 
These and other instruments were at work ; and at a con- 
vention of nobles, gentry, and ministers, held on the 15th 
November, 1637, " among other nobles, who had not 
formerly been there, came at that diet the Earl of Mon- 
trose, which was most taken notice of : yea, when the 
Bishops heard that he was come there to join, they were 
somewhat affrighted, having that esteem of his parts, that 
they thought it time to prepare for a storm when he en- 
gaged." Well might these bishops think it time to pre- 
pare for a storm ; not merely because Montrose engaged, 
but for other and older reasons. To understand Scottish 
affairs at this time one must study the history of these 
bishops ; it will throw light on much, but serves, espe- 
cially, to show how it was that the nobles became so gen- 
erally zealous leaders in the cause of the Covenant.* 

The Reformation of John Knox was incomplete, at 
least, in this : that it left bishops in the church, or, 
rather, on it. Shorn of their spiritual powers and priv- 
ileges, they retained, to a great extent, their temporal — 
their revenues and seats in Parliament. King James the 
Sixth, seeing in these bishops the readiest means of con- 
trolling the Church of Scotland, upheld them in the State, 
and strove continually to reinstate them in the Church. 
The Presbyterians, on the contrary, claiming Christ as 
the only head of their church, strove, not merely to lessen 
the power of these prelates, but to cast them off altogether 
as an encumbrance, and dangerous anomaly. Bishops of 
this kind became inevitably creatures of the court, and the 

* See the Life and Times of Alexander Henderson, by Rev. John Aiton. 
Edinburgh, 1836. 



A COVENANTER HEART AND HAND. 149 

King could count always on their votes in Parliament. 
In 1572, death having been busy among the .prelates, the 
court became alarmed at its loss of power, and Parlia- 
ment appointed a new batch of them to the vacant sees. 
These new bishops were made subject to the General 
Assembly of the Church in spiritual matters, and to the 
King in temporal ; and they were to confirm, secretly, a 
considerable portion of the revenues of their sees to 
nobles who already held them. Hence the name Tul- 
chan bishops — one of the wittiest nicknames ever given ; 
for tulchan means, not a real calf, but a csiU-skin stuffed 
with straw into semblance of that interesting animal ; 
•which semblance, placed under a cow, induces the bewil- 
dered creature to yield her milk to a milker who is not 
flesh of her flesh, as she supposes, but an alien. So by 
means of these bishops Scotland was made to yield ; but 
she, smelling out the real fact, soon began to kick. In 
1580, therefore, the General Assembly held at Dundee 
declared " the pretended office of bishop," as then used, 
unlawful in itself and without warrant from the word of 
God. The people being almost unanimous in favor of 
pure Presbyterianism, King, bishops, and courtiers con- 
ceded much, or seemed to concede ; and a national Cov- 
enant was formed and signed by people, ministers of the 
Kirk, nobles, and by King James himself. Nevertheless, 
the struggle between King and Church soon recommenced, 
and the nobles began to take more decided part in it ; for 
the elevation of bishops to high offices in the State was 
an offence to them, and an encroachment on their own 
domain. Hence the daring Raid of Ruthven, by which a 
party of nobles made the King their prisoner, and pre- 
scribed measures of state to him ; but when he escaped, 
these bold nobles, denounced as traitors, fled, and the 

13*- 



150 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

Court was again triumphant. In the Parliament of 1584 
Acts against the Church passed, known as the Black Acts, 
and many ministers of the Kirk, in danger of their lives, 
fled. These exiled nobles and ministers, raising an army, 
marched against the King and compelled him to grant 
pardons and a restitution of estates to the confederated 
nobles ; but the Church gained little by this movement. 
Soon after, at a conference between Court and Kirk, it 
was agreed that the prelates should retain their titles on 
condition that they submitted themselves to the Presby- 
tery ; and in 1587, in consequence of their lands being 
annexed to the Crown, they were virtually expelled from 
Parliament. Still, however, there were men who bore 
the title of bishop by reason of their holding castles be- 
longing to the sees ; and the contest between Kirk and 
State in relation to them, and to other matters, continued 
long with alternating success ; but King James, coming 
down in person into the common arena of wordy argu- 
ment, lost the vantage ground of a king on his throne. 
The ministers of the Kirk battling so, with blast and 
counter-blast, ceased to reverence his Majesty ; and in 
1596, Andrew Melville, grasping the royal sleeve, called 
the wearer of it " God's silly vassal," and said to him : 
" There are two kings and two kingdoms in Scotland ; 
there is King James, the head of this Commonwealth, and 
there is Christ Jesus, the King of the Church, whose sub- 
ject James the Sixth is, and of whose kingdom he is not 
a king, nor a lord, nor a head, but a member." At 
another time, when this King, listening to the daring de- 
nunications of the preacher, Robert Bruce, grew indig- 
nant, and commanded him to speak sense or come down 
from the pulpit, Bruce, too ready to rebel, declared aloud 
that he would do neither. In this way, and in other 



A COVENANTER HEART AND HAND. 151 

ways, James lost the vantage ground of a king ; but after 
his accession to the throne of England he felt stronger, 
and in 1606, at the Parliament of St. Johnstone's (Perth), 
he restored to bishops the lands which had been annexed 
to the Crown, and also their former privileges and pre- 
rogatives ; though the Assembly of the Kirk withheld its 
assent to the restitution. The King, however, in the 
struggle which ensued, prevailed so far that bishops got, 
to a great extent, the government of the Church ; but the 
Episcopal forms and ceremonies introduced by them were 
very odious to the people. And so the struggle went on, 
till "God's silly vassal" died, leaving his kingdom of 
Scotland, and battle with its Kirk, as inheritance to his 
son. On the accession of this son, Charles the First, to 
the throne, in 1625, he, under lead of Archbishop Laud, 
a man of " mean, square-shaped forehead, sallow coun- 
tenance, pinched features, and peering eyes," endeavored 
to effect an entire uniformity in religion, or, in other 
words, to establish Episcopacy. The General Assembly, 
doing what it could, continued to assert its jurisdiction 
over bishops ; but the King, counselled by Laud, raised 
them to the highest civil offices. In 1634 he removed 
all the noblemen who were Lords of the Exchequer, and 
put in their place the Bishops of St. Andrews, Glasgow, 
Ross, Edinburgh, and some Lords of Sessions. The prel- 
ates then, acting in unison, controlled the proceedings 
of Parliament, favoring always the measures of the King ; 
but the nobles of Scotland, on the other hand, began 
thereupon to take more decided part in opposition to him 
and his measures. So long ago as 1606, at the " Red 
Parliament" of St. Johnstone's (Perth), the prelates gave 
offence to the nobles by riding to it " in great pomp of 
silk and velvet, betwixt the Earls and Lords ; and the next 



152 JAMES GKAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

day they went on foot, because they were not allowed to 
take precedence of the Earls. In 1626 King Charles 
sought to settle the point of precedency in favor of the 
prelates ; and, at his coronation in Edinburgh, in 1633, 
he sent a message to the Lord Chancellor Hay, Earl of 
Kinnoul, " to show that it was his will and pleasure, but 
only for that day, that he should cede and give place to 
the Archbishop ; " but the stout old Earl returned for 
answer, that he would lay down his office at the King's 
command ; but, while he held it, " never a stoled priest 
in Scotland should set foot before him so long as his blood 
was hot." Nor did any stoled priest set foot before him 
that day. 

Other well-known acts of King Charles had given 
ofifence to these nobles : in the matter of tithes, by 
which they got a part of their revenues, the King ap- 
pointed a commission to value them, and gave proprietors 
of land liberty to compound the tithes at nine years' pur- 
chase ; and in regard to church lands, which the nobles 
got soon after the Reformation, an Act of Revocation was 
passed to transfer these lands to the Crown : and in these 
measures the prelates concurred. So, through long years, 
the feeling against bishops grew, till the spirit that dic- 
tated the answer of the Earl of Kinnoul was strong in all 
the nobles of Scotland. Even the most worldly of them 
found the cause of the Kirk to be their own ; and the 
facetious, pleasure-seeking Earl of Rothes, the same whose 
" canniness brought in Montrose," was the reputed Father 
of the Covenant. But these opponents of Episcopal rule 
were not therefore unfriendly to the King, nor was there 
at this time any whisper of disloyalty to him. Archibald, 
Lord Napier, the brother-in-law of Montrose, the chosen 
guardian of his youth, the friend and counsellor on whom 



A COVENANTER HEART AND HAND. 153 

he at this time and always relied, — a man sixty years 
old, calm, considerate, wise, and loyal throughout to the 
King, — was, nevertheless, among the most determined 
opponents of Episcopacy and its bishops. The young 
Chief of the Grahams, therefore, coming forward at this 
time into public life, was altogether right in taking active 
part for Scotland's Kirk. When he appeared at that 
convention on the 15th of November, 1637, the bishops, 
as we remember, " thought it time to prepare for a 
storm" — a storm which, as we have seen, had been long 
a-brewing. 

At this convention that committee was appointed known 
as the Committee of Estates, composed of nobles of the 
first rank, lesser nobles and gentry, ministers and bur- 
gesses ; who, placed, when in session, at different tables 
according to rank, were designated, often, as the Tables. 
Montrose, gladly welcomed at this convention, got into 
office at once ; and he, with the Earls of Rothes, Lou- 
don, and Lindsay, composed the first Table. This Com- 
mittee of Estates, knowing, like other things of the kind, 
little, at first, of its own scope and purpose, became 
soon the Revolutionary Committee of Scotland. Its first 
work was the formation of the famous Covenant ; adopt- 
ing that confession of faith, or covenant, made in the time 
of James the Sixth and signed by him, they modified it a 
little, and added to it a clause whereby the signers were 
bound to defend each other, in carrying out the purposes 
of the Covenant against the King himself, if need should 
be. Among the signatures to it, the most prominent is 
that of Montrose. On the original Covenant, and on fac- 
similes of it, the name stands in large, bold characters, 
legible at a distance which makes all other names there 
appear only as idle tracings. On that instrument, and 



154 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

wherever found elsewhere, the signature seems to say 
that the writer will avow not only it, but " every jot " that 
is writ over it, whatever peril may be in such avowal. 
The immediate work following the formation of this Cov- 
enant was the getting of subscribers to it ; and in this, as 
in all other matters in which he took part at all, Montrose 
was among the foremost. Baillie tells us how the work 
went on. Writing under date April 5, 1638, he says : 
" Of noblemen, who are not Councillors [of King's Coun- 
cil] or papists, unto whom it was not offered, I think they 
be within four or five who have not subscribed " the Cov- 
enant ; " and the parishes throughout the whole country, 
where the ministers could be persuaded, on a Sabbath 
day all have publickly, with ane uplifted hand, man and 
woman, sworn it." 

Not Lord Napier only, but many other friends of Mon- 
trose too, were the determined opponents of Episcopal rule ; 
and the young Earl himself, born of Presbyterian parents, 
and reared in that faith, went forward undoubting in aid of 
" Religion and just liberties." Now and then, however, he, 
believing that men did really mean what they professed, got 
a lesson ; as, for instance, in regard to the King's Commis' 
sioner, James, Marquis of Hamilton. When the King's 
Declaration about the affairs of Scotland was published, 
and met by a Remonstrance and Protestation of the leading 
Covenanters, there was, in July of this year 1638, a confer- 
ence between Hamilton and the Lords of Council on the 
one part, and Earls Rothes, Loudon, and Montrose, and the 
ministers Henderson, Dickson, and Cant, on the other. At 
the close of this conference, Hamilton drew the Covenanters 
aside, and said : " My Lords and gentlemen, I spoke to 
you before those Lords of Council as King's Commissioner : 
now, there being none present but yourselves, I speak to 



A COVENANTER HEART AND HAND. 155 

you as a kindly Scotsman. If you go on with courage and 
resolution, you will carry what you please ; but if you 
faint, or give ground in the least, you are undone. A word 
is enough to wise men." Montrose, speaking of this 
afterwards, said : "It wrought an impression that my Lord 
Hamilton might intend by this business to advance his 
design ; but that he [Montrose] would suspend his judg- 
ment until he saw farther ; and, in the mean time, look 
more narrow to his walking." The design referred to here 
is one of which Hamilton had been some time before ac- 
cused — that, namely, of making himself King of Scotland ; 
and Montrose, astonished at this instance of double-deal- 
ing in the King's Commissioner, would look more closely 
to his walking. 

Soon after this conference with the King's Commissioner, 
Montrose went to Aberdeen, as the head of a committee 
appointed by the Estates, to get subscribers to the Cov- 
enant there. Among the members of this committee 
were three prominent ministers of the Kirk, — Alexander 
Henderson, Andrew Cant, and David Dickson, — called 
*' the three Apostles of the Covenant." These ministers 
preached, each of them in turn, on Sunday, and again on 
Monday, from the window of a large wooden gallery over- 
looking the " close," or yard, of the Earl Mareschal's 
mansion in the market-place of Aberdeen. The assembled 
people, standing below, listened with upturned faces, but 
not many were persuaded, it seems ; for only about five 
hundred of them put their names to the Covenant, though 
Montrose on this occasion, as on others of the same kind, 
was not strict in his requirements. To meet the scruples 
of the loyal Doctors of the north, he drew up, and himself 
signed, a declaration of this tenor : " Like as we, under- 
subscribing, do declare that we neither had, or have, any 



156 JAMES GEAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

intention but of loyalty to his Majesty, as the Covenant 
bears." 

Returning to Edinburgh in August, Montrose met again 
the Marquis of Hamilton, who, at this time, changed his 
tone a little. When he was here before, he did, says 
Baillie, " encourage us to proceed with our supplication ; " 
but now, on his return from the King, he " kept himself 
more reserved than before," and *' after some days par- 
leying no man could get his mind ; " for, indeed, the man 
had no decided mind. Wittingly and unwittingly, he was, 
as Montrose afterwards said, " the prime fomenter of these 
misunderstandings betwixt the King and his subjects." 
Hamilton, however, did at this time offer various conces- 
sions on the part of the King, which were publicly pro- 
claimed, but were met by a protestation from the leading 
Covenanters ; and " the Earl of Montrose appeared, upon 
this occasion, in the name of the discontented nobility." 
Baillie says, Hamilton's instructions seemed to be of many 
parts — to claim much, but, if he met opposition, to con- 
cede much. Baillie thinks and says : " It had been better 
to grant at the first frankly ; " and Baillie, a canny Scot, 
points here to the fatal error in all Charles Stuart's nego- 
tiations with his people. 

On the 15th day of the next November the General 
Assembly of the Kirk met at Glasgow, and had a stormy 
session there. Among the representatives of the Presby- 
tery of Auchterarder in Strathearn appeared " James, Earl 
of Montrose, Elder " — a rather remarkable Elder of the 
church certainly, but as honest, I think, as the most of 
them. In convening this Assembly, the Covenanters had 
a determined purpose, and the members of it were chosen 
accordingly ; many of them being, in fact, nominated by 
the Committee of Estates at Edinburgh. The Presbytery 



A COVENANTER HEART AND HAND. 157 

of Brechin, near Old Montrose, elected, first, Erskine of 
Dunn, but by only a small number of votes ; and at a 
subsequent meeting, in much larger numbers, chose Lord 
Carnigie, the brother-in-law of Montrose, as representa- 
tive. The commissions of both men having been sent to 
the Committee of Estates, Carnigie's election was there 
declared illegal, while that of Erskine was approved ; and 
a certificate to that eff'ect was written on the back of it, 
and signed by Montrose and others. In the Assembly, 
when these two commissions came in question, the Earl 
of Southesk, of whom we heard some time ago as Sir 
David Carnigie, " disputed for his son," and Montrose for 
Erskine of Dunn ; and the contest between Southesk and 
Montrose " grew so hot that it terrified the whole Assem- 
bly." The King's Commissioner, Hamilton, *' taking the 
moderator's place, commanded peace." In the course of 
this contest, " the clerk, as I think unadvisably," says 
Baillie, " read in public, not only the commission, but also 
the Tables' subscribed approbation on the back ; " and 
*' when Mr. David Dickson spake of this back- writ as 
having some negligence in it, Montrose took him hotly and 
professed their resolution to avow every jot that was writ." 
Hamilton, finding this Assembly disposed to extreme meas- 
ures, dissolved it, or attempted to dissolve it, and de- 
parted ; but the Assembly, nevertheless, continued in 
session, excommunicated bishops, abolished Episcopacy, 
and, with unsparing hand, swept away all that threatened 
to control the church. 

In the beginning of February of the next year, 1639, 
Montrose, with the Earl of Kinghorn and others, was in 
Forfar, head burgh of the shire of that name, where, under 
direction of the Tables, or Committee of Estates, he 
" stented," or assessed, the landholders to raise funds for 

14 



158 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

the good cause. Here, again, he came in contact with his 
father-in-law, Southesk, who questioned his authority to 
assess the King's subjects for such purpose ; for Southesk 
was a loyal Earl, till loyalty to the King came to be peril- 
ous, and then he became neutral ; continuing throughout, 
however, loyal to his own estates. 

Our tale, as it runs through these years, 1637 and 1638, 
is a meagre one ; for materials are wanting. Mr. Napier 
has in his books one or two bits of stories which may have 
some basis of truth — how Montrose cheered on the mob 
when pulling down the organ in the chapel of Holyrood 
House ; how he, mounted on a barrel head, harangued the 
people in the streets of Edinburgh, the Earl of Rothes 
standing by at the time, ready with his joke. And the 
King's Commissioner, Hamilton, in a letter to his Majesty 
treating of Scottish affairs, says, when speaking of prom- 
inent Covenanters, that there are none " more vainly foolish 
than Montrose." Making due allowance for Hamilton's 
ill will, these words only serve to show that the ** vainly 
foolish " man did not work by crooked ways under cover, 
but openly and aboveboard, willing always to be seen and 
known. The truth is, that the young Earl, just taking part 
in public affairs, and prone to be among the foremost, was 
active in *' pulling down bishops," and in preventing the 
establishment of Episcopal forms. The Kirk, dear to the 
people, was at this time in danger of overthrow ; and he, 
a leader of the people, himself reared in its faith, was, as 
became a Scottish Earl, strenuous in maintenance of Scot- 
land's Kirk. But he was not therefore disloyal to its King; 
for, though History books speak of Covenanters as a party 
opposed to Royalists, the fact at this time was not, strictly 
speaking, so. The people of Scotland, the rank and file 
of them, were loyal then to their King, and had no thought 



A COVENANTER HEART AND HAND. 159 

of deposing him ; but, loyal also to their Kirk, they would 
willingly have reconciled these two loyalties. What de- 
signs some of their leaders, Argyle and other lords, had, 
whether loyal or not, must remain doubtful. Montrose 
came soon to the belief that they had "far designs" — 
designs of which they themselves, at this time, probably 
did not know the scope and end. But, whatever may have 
been the aim and purpose of these leaders of the popular 
movement, it is very plain that Montrose did not find him- 
self at home among them ; for their ways were not as his 
ways ; and he was well pleased, I think, to get out of their 
committee rooms into open field of action ; where, as mil- 
itary leader, he could see what he was doing, and bring 
something into order. 

The Covenanters, as we have seen, at the beginning of 
their organization as a party, turned their attention to the 
north, where the Marquis of Huntly was the leader of a 
strong party hostile to their proceedings. Himself a Ro- 
man Catholic, he had long been obnoxious to the Kirk ; 
and Montrose, soon after that stenting of the landhold- 
ers in Forfarshire, notified the northern Covenanters, the 
Forbeses, Frazars, Keiths, and Crichtons, to meet him at 
Turreff near Huntly's Castle of Strathbogie ; the purpose 
being to suppress the Gordons and their allies. Huntly, 
hearing of this movement, summoned his clan to overawe 
and check the gathering, and if possible prevent it ; but 
Montrose, says an old writer, " was ready at a call." 
Summoning the gentry of Angus (Forfarshire) and the 
Mearns (Kincardineshire), he led them, and their followers, 
across the Northern Grampians to Turrefi", the place of 
rendezvous. Posting his troops, about eight hundred 
strong, in the kirkyard there, he awaited the arrival of 
Huntly, who soon appeared with his Gordon cavalry, two 



160 JAMES GKAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

thousand of them, or more. Huntly, whose purpose it 
had been to get possession of the place first, and prevent 
the meeting of Covenanters, finding himself foiled, retired 
and dismissed his followers without an offer of battle ; for 
which the time had not yet arrived, though it was near. 
Montrose, having thus accomplished his purpose of confer- 
ence with the northern Covenanters, withdrew southward 
to his own district, and had there, we will hope, some 
quiet days with his wife and boys ; though of his life at 
home, in his own household, we can nowhere get any 
glimpse or hint. We know only that he was soon called 
again to be a leader of men in open field — a business for 
which he had a natural aptitude and inclination. 

Huntly, who had been appointed King's Lieutenant in 
the north, had also been promised aid from England to 
maintain the King's cause there. In expectation of such 
aid, he, soon after that meeting at Turreff, gathered force 
again, mustering at Inverary, in the latter part of March, 
1639, about three thousand horse and foot. On the 
other hand, Montrose, having been commissioned " General 
Commanding in Chief for the Covenanters," raised in the 
Mearns, Angus, and northern part of Perthshire, horse 
and foot, in all about twenty-five hundred ; and, sum- 
moning the Covenanters of the more northern shires to 
arm, he marched to join them. By his side in this expe- 
dition marched a rather remarkable man, by name Alex- 
ander Leslie ; but the old historian Spalding can best 
introduce him. *'Now about this time (January, 1639), 
or a little before, there came out of Germany from the 
wars, home to Scotland, ane gentleman of base birth, born 
in Balveny," or near it, who had " served long and for- 
tunately in the German wars, and called to his name Felt 
Marshall Leslie, his Excellence. His name indeed was 



A COVENANTER HEART AND HAND. 161 

Leslie ; but by his valour and good luck he attained to this 
title his Excellence, inferior to none but the King of Swe- 
den, under whom he served amongst all his cavallirie. 
Well, this Felt Marshall Leslie, having conquest, frae 
nought, honour and wealth in great abundance, resolved to 
come home to his native country of Scotland, and settle 
beside his Chief, the Earl of Rothes ; as he indeed did, and 
coft fair lands in Fife. But this Earl, foreseeing the 
troubles whereof himself was one of the principal begin- 
ners, took hold of this Leslie, who was both wise and 
stout, acquaints him with this plot, and had his advice for 
furthering thereof to his power." A man peculiarly fitted 
to lead these Lord-Covenanters, and who did them good 
service as leader. Greater contrast in military leaders than 
these two presented, it would be difficult to find. The 
reader has formed for himself some picture of Montrose : 
the man by his side was " a little, old, crooked soldier ; " 
illiterate enough, who could write his own name, but little 
else : who gave his orders always in the form of advice : 
but the youthful General had, nevertheless, an able and 
prudent counsellor, to whom he probably listened a little. 

Montrose, with his small army, entered Aberdeen on the 
30th of March, and was joined by the Forbeses, Frazers, 
and other Covenanters ; but Huntly, disappointed of the 
promised aid from England, and paralyzed, it is said, by 
the instructions of Hamilton, retired again to his castle of 
Strathbogie ; and Montrose, now at the head of six thou- 
sand men, finding none to oppose him, indulged in a little 
whimsey. "At this time the Covenanters began to take 
and wear for their colours blue ribbons," scarfwise about 
their necks, or in bunches on their caps or bonnets. 
" This was Montrose's whimsie ; " and a very good one 
too, denoting a leader of men ; for in all popular move- 
14* 



162 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

ments some sign or symbol, some visible token that all 
are of one mind, is needed ; thereby each man makes proc- 
lamation of himself in a simple, comprehensive way, which 
is intelligible to all men : and this blue ribbon became the 
sign of the Covenant in arms. Montrose, according to the 
records of the Town Council of Aberdeen, " charged us," 
the citizens, " to cast in and fill up our trenches in all 
possible diligence, and to enter to work for that effect on 
Monday next, and to continue thereat till all the trenches 
were filled up again, under the pain of plundering and 
razing our town ; which was accordingly obeyed ; " and 
being obeyed, he did not harm the town. Investing the 
Earl of Kinghorn with the title of Governor of Aber- 
deen, and leaving with him fifteen hundred of his troops 
for garrison, Montrose, with the remainder of his army, 
marched out of the city, and encamped at Inverary, 
ten miles north of it. Here, Gordon of Straloch, commis- 
sioned by Huntly, came to Montrose, and arranged for a 
conference between the Chief of the Gordons and the 
Chief of the Grahams. Accompanied, each of them, by 
eleven friends, they met in the vicinity of Inverary ; and, 
after some formalities, the two chiefs stepped aside from 
the others and held a long private conference, the partic- 
ulars of which are unknown ; but the result was, that 
Huntly and his friends rode forward with Montrose to 
the Covenanters' camp, and were courteously received. 
But Huntly, finding there many of his personal enemies, 
became apprehensive of danger, and sent Gordon of Stra- 
loch to the General of the Covenanters when he was alone 
in his tent. Montrose, listening to suggestions of Gor- 
don, replied, that he knew there were men in his camp 
who bore no good will to Huntly ; but that he himself 
*' would do for him all the good offices he could, and would 



A COVENANTER HEART AND HAND. 163 

fail in no promise ; " " only," added he, " there is this dif- 
ficulty, that business here is all transacted by a vote and a 
committee ; nor can I get any thing done of myself; " and 
when Gordon urged him further to deal fairly by his Chief, 
and not to yield to others who were not of like mind with 
himself, Montrose said : " I shall do my utmost for Hunt- 
ly's satisfaction." Finally, an arrangement was made by 
which Huntly agreed " to restrain none who were willing 
to take the oath of the Covenant ; " and, on the other 
hand, it was agreed that Huntly's followers should not be 
harmed, provided they carried themselves peaceably. In 
regard '* to such as were Papists," like Huntly himself, 
the following Declaration was drawn up and signed by 
Huntly, by Montrose, and by three other Lord- Covenant- 
ers, Kinghorn, Erskine, and Couper : " For as meikle as 
those who by profession are of a contrary religion, and 
therefore cannot condescend to the subscribing of the Cov- 
enant, yet are willing to concur with us in the common 
cause of maintaining the laws and liberties of the King- 
dom, these are, therefore, requiring that none of those 
who, being Papists by profession, and willing to subscribe 
the bond of maintenance of the laws and liberties foresaid, 
shall be in any ways molested in their goods or means, nor 
sustain any prejudice more than those who have subscribed 
the Covenant." Thereupon Montrose fulfilled his promise, 
and Huntly was allowed to depart in peace ; but " not 
without the great miscontent of those who would have 
had him detained." 

Montrose, soon after this, returned with his army to 
Aberdeen ; and some other Covenanting Lords having 
come in, a grand conclave was held for some days : after 
much discussion of the state of the north, and the position 
of Huntly, the arrangement just concluded was found to 



164 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

be unsatisfactory. Huntly, therefore, was requested to 
meet the Covenanters again; and he, though unwilling, 
came in on the assurance of Montrose and others, that he 
should not be detained prisoner — an assurance given in 
good faith, doubtless. But now, new terms and obliga- 
tions were urged upon Huntly ; and he, indignant, de- 
manded that the bond he had signed at Inverary should be 
returned to him. On the delivery of it he asked : " Will 
ye take me South with you as a captive, or shall I go vol- 
untarily?" Montrose replied: "Make your choice." 
*' Then," said the other, " I will not go as a captive, but 
as a volunteer ; " and so he made his Hobson's choice. 
Montrose appears to have opposed this act, but it does not 
appear that he was strenuous enough in opposition ; and 
though the accounts of this transaction are imperfect, it 
leaves something like a permanent blot on his fair fame. 

On the 19th of April Montrose arrived at Edinburgh; 
and the Marquis of Huntly, with his eldest son, George, 
Lord Gordon, who, at his own request, accompanied his 
father, were lodged in the castle. 

The ensuing month of May was a stirring time. The 
Marquis of Hamilton, with nineteen ships and five thou- 
sand men from England, with which he had promised the 
King to subjugate Scotland, was in the Frith of Forth. 
The Gordons, and other northern Royalists, aroused by the 
treacherous capture of their leader, Huntly, were all in 
commotion. Viscount Aboyne, second son of Huntly, was 
away to the King, at Newcastle, asking aid. Montrose, 
his attempt at quieting the north undone, was again levy- 
ing troops in Angus and the Mearns, where he was at 
home and well known. Alexander Leslie, little, old, and 
crooked, now commander-in-chief for the Covenanters, was 
marching south, with a host of men, all armed for the pur- 



A COVENAIfTER HEART AND HAND. 165 

pose of persuading the King to grant " Religion and just 
liberties" to Scotland. As one of that host marched our 
friend the Reverend Robert Baillie, who gives this account 
of himself: "I furnished to half a dozen good fellows 
muskets and pikes, and to my boy a broad-sword. I car- 
ried myself, as the fashion was, a sword, and a couple of 
Dutch pistols at my saddle ; but, I promise you, for the 
offence of no man, except a robber in the way." 

Aboyne, on the 13th of this month, got a letter from 
the King, and embarking at Newcastle, he, with two ships 
of sixteen guns each, and military stores, sailed to the 
Frith of Forth, where he handed his letter to Hamilton, 
who read this in it : " What assistance you can spare him 
[Aboyne] out of the forces that are with you, I leave you 
to judge." Thereupon Hamilton feasted the young Vis- 
count on board his flag-ship, "with playing of the ord- 
nance at every health : " but the ordnance played at noth- 
ing else. On the sands at Leith were armed men to op- 
pose the landing ; and, also, one armed woman, the old 
Marchioness of Hamilton. Riding to and fro there, with 
pistols at her saddle bow, she said, that if her son dared 
to land with hostile intent, she herself, the stout old she- 
Covenanter, would shoot him dead. The Marchioness, well 
acquainted with her son, thought some show of opposition 
would not be useless. Baillie says : "It was evident he 
eschewed all occasion of beginning the war ; he did not 
trouble a man on shore with a shot." Nor did he judge it 
best to give Aboyne any aid in maintenance of a war for 
the King in the north : but he did recommend to him one 
Colonel Gun as military adviser. The associated barons 
of the north, in expectation of aid from the King, were at 
this time all in arms ; and Montrose, having completed his 
levies, marched across the Grampians to quell them, at the 



166 JAMES GKAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

head of four thousand men. On the 25th of May he en- 
tered Aberdeen, which was already in possession of an 
army of Covenanters, under Earls Mareschal, Athole, and 
Kinghorn. That city, loyal at this time, was fined by 
Montrose ten thousand merks ; " but, by the General's 
orders, neither goods nor geir were plundered." On the 
last day of this month the General, with forces amounting 
to near ten thousand men, marched to disarm the Gor- 
dons ; but finding little opposition, his followers began to 
disband for want of work ; and also for want of plunder, 
in which it appears that the General restrained them. 
Learning that Aboyne was on his way to Aberdeen, and 
apprehensive that he would come powerfully supported by 
Hamilton, Montrose fell back and entered that city on the 
3d of June ; and the next day continued his march home- 
ward. Aboyne, arriving at Aberdeen by sea, two days 
after the Covenanters left it, was joined there by his brother. 
Lord Lewis Gordon, a wild boy of thirteen ; followed, 
however, by a thousand armed men. With these, and 
other royalists, who enrolled themselves under his standard, 
this Viscount Aboyne, a youthful commander, aged nine- 
teen, marched southward along the coast, having under his 
lead four thousand men ; and found an opponent sooner 
than he expected ; for Montrose, turning about in Angus, 
had come northward again with eight hundred men or 
thereabout, and intrenched them on the sea-coast, before 
Dunnotter Castle, the stronghold of his friend, the Earl 
Mareschal. Getting field-pieces from the castle to strength- 
en his position, Montrose, with a place of refuge behind 
him in case of need, awaited the arrival of the Royalists. 
Aboyne, approaching, took advice of Colonel Gun ; and, on 
the 15th of June, drew his army up on a little hill near to 
the intrenched Covenanters, and exposed to the fire of 



A COVENANTEK HEAKT AND HAND. 167 

their artillery : when it opened on them, the Highlanders 
among the Royalists, unused to such implements of war, 
fled in confusion. Thereupon the Aberdeen infantry, in a 
mutinous state before, marched off homeward ; and Aboyne, 
with few beside his Gordon cavalry faithful to him, was 
constrained to follow. Montrose, unexpected victor in al- 
most bloodless fight, marched northward to the River Dee ; 
but was staid there a while ; for the river, swollen by rains, 
was unfordable ; and the bridge near Aberdeen was held 
by Aboyne, who had posted his foot soldiers on it behind 
barricades, and ranked his Gordon horse at its farther end, 
on the opposite banks. The Covenanters placed their 
cannon to cover assault, and a contest for the bridge 
began at morn on the 18th of June, and continued through 
the day ; but when night came the Royalists still held it. 
Under cover of the dark, Montrose prepared for the mor- 
row ; and when it dawned, his field-pieces, nearer the bar- 
ricades than before, opened a passage for him ; his cavalry 
at the same time galloping along the river's banks, as 
though about to cross by the ford ; and Aboyne, acting by 
advice of Colonel Gun, sent ofi" his horse along the other 
bank to meet them. The Covenanters, prompt at the right 
moment, rushed forward, and the defenders of the bridge 
gave it up. Aboyne, his brief military expedition now at 
its end, went to his home ; and his military adviser, recom- 
mended by Hamilton, got among the Gordons the name 
of Traitor Gun. 

When the Covenanters entered Aberdeen, many of them, 
angry because of the aid given to Aboyne by its citizens, 
were urgent with Montrose to burn it ; but he opposed 
them, giving good reasons for mercy, and finally pre- 
vailed to spare it ; exacting, however, a fine of four thou- 
sand pounds Scotch. 



168 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

At this time the negotiations between the Covenanters 
and the King at Berwick came to a conclusion ; and on 
the 18th of July they signed that futile arrangement called 
the Pacification of Berwick. News of this pacification 
coming to Aberdeen on the 20th, Montrose disbanded his 
army, and went himself, probably, to Old Montrose, or to 
his Castle of Kincardine, — to his own home, wherever 
that then was, — and passed a few of the summer days 
with his wife and the boys, of whom, at this time, there 
were four — John, James, Robert, and David ;' John, the 
eldest, nine years old, or near that; and the youngest, little 
David, named for grandfather Southesk, about eighteen 
months. But the father of these boys w^as soon abroad 
again; for towards the end of July in this year 1639, 
the King having invited the Scottish nobles to a confer- 
ence. Earls Rothes, Loudon, and Montrose went to Ber- 
wick to meet him ; but the King, discontented that no 
more came, ordered them to send for the Earls of Argyle, 
Cassilis, and others of that party. These nobles, by 
contrivance of their own or otherwise, were prevented ; 
multitudes of people convening at the water gate of Edin- 
burgh to stop them. Thereupon the King,, who had 
proposed to come to Scotland and hold the Parliament in 
person, changed his mind, and departed on the 29th of 
that month for London ; because, as he said afterwards in 
his Declaration, he would not trust his person with those 
who mistrusted him. 

Joining in a popular movement is like embarking on a 
swift-flowing river : one goes onward even while he sleeps ; 
and, waking, he is carried forward beyond his own will or 
perception. Such movement, too, like a river, narrow at 
first, widens as it goes, till landmarks are no longer visible. 
By such movement was Montrose carried forward towards 



A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 169 

results which startled him when they loomed in the dis- 
tance. The Covenanters, finding the young Earl now less 
ardent in their cause, said, " the King had turned him at 
his being with his Majesty at Berwick." That he was 
influenced by that conference is not unlikely. Charles, well 
pleased that some Scottish nobles had not mistrusted him, 
was doubtless gracious in reception of them. Montrose, 
of quick, decisive nature, had strong personal affinities 
and repulsions ; and the grave, melancholy, not ill-meaning 
King, in urgent need of help, too, made an appeal to this 
strong, fearless man, which was powerful in its silence. 
But the justification of Montrose must be found, if found 
at all, in the story of his life. 



CHAPTER IV. 

A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 

The General Assembly of the Kirk, which met in Au- 
gust of this year 1639, declared " Episcopacy unlawful 
and contrary to the word of God," and passed an ordinance 
for imposing the Covenant on all the people of Scotland ; 
and in the Parliament which met on the last day of that 
month the acts of that Assembly were ratified, and the 
prerogatives of the King were attacked. Bishop Guthrie 
says : " The leaders of the cause had further projects ; 
and, instead of rising, proposed a number of new motions 
concerning the constitution of Parliaments and other things 
not treated on before ; whereanent the Commissioner told 
them he had no instructions. Montrose argued somewhat 
against these motions ; for which the zealots became sus- 

15 



170 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

picious of him, that the King had turned him at his being 
with his Majesty at Berwick " — " and men whispered in 
the streets to his prejudice." Other men, too, were of 
opinion that the Covenanters were going too far, but they 
dared not speak out their opinion ; one of them, the Rev- 
erend Robert Baillie, said, in a safe way : " Whatever the 
Prince [King] grants, I fear we press more than he can 
grant ; and when we are fully satisfied it is likely England 
will begin where we have left off." 

Montrose, who, in this Parliament, argued somewhat 
against the motions touching the King's prerogatives, had 
become somewhat discontent with the cause in which he 
had engaged himself; but he was still more discontent 
with some of the actors in it and their proceedings ; while 
they, on their part, were not altogether pleased with him 
and his doings. Baillie says : " When the canniness of 
Rothes had brought in Montrose to our party, his more 
than ordinary and evil pride made him very hard to be 
guided " — a man, w'e should say, scorning concealments 
and subterfuges ; disposed to avow every " jot " of the 
truth, as Mr. David Dickson and others have had occasion 
to know. In his expeditions to the north, too, he had 
been altogether too lenient, sparing Aberdeen and the 
country of the Gordons. Our friend Baillie, speaking in 
a complaining tone of Montrose, says : " The discretion 
of that too generous and noble youth was but too great ; 
a great sum was named as a fine to that unnatural city, 
but all was forgiven ; " and also : " A little time did try 
that w^e had been too great fools not to disarm that coun- 
try altogether, and use some severity for example among 
them : at that time they had no reason for complaining, 
but greatly to commend, as they did in words, our leader's 
courtesy." Nor was his manner of imposing the Gov- 



A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. I7l 

enant quite satisfactory to the zealous. When some of the 
Loyalists of Aberdeen were scrupulous, he added a saving 
clause to the bond, as we remember ; and the arrangement 
he made with " such as were Papists " amounted to tol- 
eration of them. And so, on many accounts, not dishon- 
orable to Montrose, the leading Covenanters had become 
dissatisfied with him, and were not disposed to admit him 
to their secret counsels. 

Montrose, on his part, began at this time, as we said, 
to be doubtful of the cause itself. So long as Presbyterian 
Scotland claimed only, or mainly, the right of going to 
church in her own way, with none to molest or make her 
afraid, he held the claim to be a just one — one to be en- 
forced at all hazards ; but when the Kirk grew intolerant 
and aggressive, he became doubtful of her right. But he 
liked the cause of the Covenant always better than he liked 
the chief actors in it and their mode of procedure. He said 
to Huntly's friend, Gordon of Straloch, who came to him 
when he was in his tent alone : " There is this difficulty, 
that business here is all transacted by a vote and a com- 
mittee, nor can I get any thing done of myself," — which 
proved then to be a very serious difficulty, implicating him 
in that dishonorable transaction by which Huntly was 
made prisoner. Nor was this the only experience he had 
had of this way of doing business ; for in the Committee 
of Estates at Edinburgh he had seen much of it, and had 
learned that the chief actor in it is rarely the best man, 
but oftener the worst, who plays his underhand game, and 
gets done by means of votes in committee what he would 
be ashamed or afraid to do of himself alone. Such a 
man was Archibald Campbell, Earl of Argyle ; and of him, 
because of his influence on the course of Montrose, we 
must give some account here. There was, some have said. 



172 JAMES GKAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

an old feud between these men — a family or clan feud. 
That may be true ; but their feud had deeper foundation 
than that, for it was one of nature's feuds — not inherited, 
but ingrained. This Archibald Campbell, eighth Earl and 
first Marquis of Argyle, was " a timorous man, with a sinis- 
ter expression of face," which did not belie him. He was 
called, in the Highlands, Gillespie Grumach, Grumach being 
Gaelic for ill-favored. His own father, speaking of him 
to Charles the First, said : " Sir, I must know this young 
man better than you can do. You may raise him, which 
I doubt not you will live to repent ; for he is a man of 
craft, subtility, and falsehood, and can love no man ; and, 
if he ever finds it in his power to do you wrong, he will 
bs sure to do it." Hard sayings these, by a father about 
his son ; but the old Earl was angry then, and spoke out 
the truth without qualification. Clarendon, on the con- 
trary, gives the man a kind of praise — such praise as 
this : he, Argyle, " wanted nothing but courage and hon- 
esty to be a very extraordinary man." The fact that this 
extraordinary man had now become the head of the move- 
ment in Scotland was to Montrose a very significant one. 
The cause itself, originally a good one, could now hardly 
come to a good end ; and under such leader he could no 
longer continue to act with heart and hand. But still he 
would if possible act with and for his countrymen ; not 
against them ; and do his utmost to circumvent " the in- 
direct practisings of a few " of the leaders of the move- 
ment — a rather hopeless attempt, but an honest one. 

During the session of that Parliament in which Mon- 
trose argued somewhat against certain motions touching 
the King's prerogatives, his kinsman, William Graham, 
Earl of Monteith, Strathearn, and Airth, writing to King 
Charles, under date September 20, 1639, says, among 



A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 173 

other things, this : "I find that my cousin Montrose hath 
both carried himself faithfully, and is more willing to con- 
tribute to his uttermost in any thing for your Majesty's 
service than any of these Lords-Covenanters ; and I am 
confident that he will keep what I promised to your Majesty 
in his name ; wherefore I do humbly entreat your Majesty, 
that, by a letter to him, you will take notice, and give him 
thanks, and desire a continuance : I wish the letter to be 
enclosed within your Majesty's letter to me ; and as I find 
the eff'ects of his service to your Majesty at this Parlia- 
ment, I shall either deliver, or keep up the letter." The 
King, in his reply to Airth, makes no allusion to Montrose ; 
but that he soon after made some overture to the young 
Earl appears from the following letter : — 

Most Sacred Sovereign : 

According to your Majesty's commandments, which you 
were graciously pleased to honour me withal, and my own 
bounden duty, and inclination to your Majesty's service, I 
was straight hasting — although your Majesty's pleasure 
was not so pressing — to have found your Majesty as you 
had commanded ; which, coming to be here known, did so 
put aloft the minds of most part — being still filled with 
their usual and wonted jealousies — that I could expect 
nothing but more peremptory resolutions than is fit to 
trouble your Majesty withal, or me, in thinking to do your 
Majesty service, to have occasioned. And, — knowing 
your Majesty's intention did still tend towards the best 
settlement and accommodation of all these difiiculties, in 
this your Majesty's kingdom, according to your Majesty's 
gracious goodness and accustomed justice, — I chose rather, 
before matters should have been made worse, and the gap 
enlarged by my means, to crave your Majesty's humble 
15* 



174 JAMES GRAHAM, MAR^IUIS OF MONTROSE. 

pardon for my stay, and make you acquainted with the 
necessities for it ; hoping your Majesty will do me the 
honour to think that this is no shift — for all of that kind 
is too much contrary to my humor, chiefly in what your 
Majesty, or your service, is concerned — but that, as I have 
ever been bold to avow, there are no things your Majesty 
shall be pleased to command me in — persuading myself 
they will be still such as befits, and do suit with all most 
incumbent duties — that I shall not think myself born to 
perform, as 

Your Majesty's most loyal and 

Faithful subject and servant, 

Montrose. 

Edinburgh, 26 December, 1639. 
To the King's Most Excellent Majesty. 

In confirmation of parts of this letter we have the testi- 
mony of Archibald Johnston of Warriston, a lawyer well 
known, and very active in these troublous times. In a 
letter of his, date January 2, 1640, to a kinsman. Lord 
Johnston, urging him not to go to Court, but to join heart 
and hand in the good cause, there is this passage : " Rather 
do nobly, as my noble Lord of Montrose has done ; who, 
having received a letter from the King himself, to go up 
with diligence to his Court, convened some of the nobility, 
showed unto them, both his particular affairs, and the 
King's command, and then, according to his Covenant of 
following the common resolution, and eschewing all ap- 
pearance of divisive motion, nobly has resolved to foUow 
their counsel, and has gone home to his own house, and 
will not go to Court at ail." 

That letter from Montrose to the King is addressed 
" Most Sacred Sovereign : " and at the close of it he 
says, with a condition however, that he was horn to per- 



A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 175 

form the King's commands. This phrase and the address 
are not without meaning. Charles Stuart held the King- 
dom of Scotland by the same right as he, James Graham, 
held an Earldom there ; the right, namely, of inheritance, 
which is a very strong right. The Graham, undoubting 
of his own right, could not doubt the Stuart's. The hum- 
blest man will defend to the utmost the wee bit of land 
which he inherits ; it is his, and not another's ; and he 
will defend, not only it, but all the privileges and appur- 
tenances thereto belonging ; and a King, surely, should do 
no less. Pity only that any man, high or low, should for- 
get, or fail to fulfil, the conditions on which he holds his 
inheritance. Montrose, think what we may of hereditary 
Kingship, was right in being loyal to it ; and we will bear 
in mind always, that much that we now know of King 
Charles was hidden from him. 

But we must not pass over that letter from Montrose to 
the King without a word more of comment. Its involved 
sentences, its reservations and conditions, give us a glimpse 
of the state of mind of its writer ; a man perplexed, I 
should say, by inclinations and duties which he could not 
reconcile and bring into harmony : therefore he convened 
some of the nobility, showed them the King's letter invit- 
ing him to Court, and then, in the last days of the year 
1639, he went, says Archibald Johnston, "to his own 
home." In his own home, and elsewhere, among his own 
friends and kinsmen, he remained very quiet far into the 
new year, and we hear of no word or act of his till June, 
when the Parliament met. The Earl of Traquair, King's 
Commissioner, having failed to appear, and open and pre- 
side in it, Lord Burleigh was elected President. At the 
outset the question arose about the legality of this Parlia- 
ment, held without the sanction of the King. On this 



176 JAMES GRAHAM, MAEQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

question there was debate ; and, according to Archibald 
Johnston's report of it, " Montrose did dispute against 
Argyle, Rothes, Balmerino, and myself." " Some urged," 
he especially, " that as long as we had a King we could 
not sit without him " in person, or by his representative ; 
and others, above named, said " that to do the less was 
more lawful than to do the greater : " or, in other words, 
it is safer to proceed without the King, in this instance, 
than to depose him at once and entirely. This Parliament, 
before its adjournment on the 11th of June, appointed a 
large Committee of Estates, some forty in all, six of them 
Earls, of whom Montrose was one. Of this Committee, 
one half was to attend the army, and the other to sit in 
Edinburgh. The Covenanters were now again called to 
arm ; and Montrose levied his regiments in the districts 
where his influence was greatest ; but he found work nearer 
home than he expected. There were loyalists in these 
districts — the Atholmen of Perthshire, whose chief was 
the Earl of Athole, and the Ogilvies of Angus. The Chief 
of these, the old Earl of Airlie, had fortified his castle, 
" the bonnie House of Airlie," on the Isla; and, leaving it 
in charge of his eldest son. Lord Ogilvy, had gone him- 
self to the King. Argyle had been appointed by the 
Committee of Estates to suppress these loyalists ; and the 
men of these districts, even the Covenanters there, dread- 
ing the advent of Argyle and his Campbell Highlanders, 
urged the Chief of the Grahams to remain with them 
a while, and do this work on the loyalists himself. In his 
own words, when called to account for delay in bringing 
forward his regiments, the threatened visitation of Argyle 
with his Highlanders " did so affright and terrify the peo- 
ple there, who feared for their homes, that they were most 
unwilling to suffer the regiments [his own] to remove till 



A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 177 

they had escaped that occasion : likeas, the Committee of 
Perth directed a letter to the Committee of Estates, desir- 
ing that those regiments might be kept in the country 
until the Highlanders were past." Therefore he, Mon- 
trose, by advice and consent of his special committee, the 
Earl of Kinghorn, Lord Couper, and his own brother-in- 
law, Lord Carnigie, proceeded to disarm the Ogilvies. 
Summoning Airlie Castle, it was at once surrendered, and 
a garrison was placed in it under the command of Colonel 
Sibbald ; and then, having notified Argyle that there was 
no work for him to do in Angus, Montrose marched, towards 
the end of June, to join General Sir Alexander Leslie, 
who, with his army, was near the borders; the purpose 
being again to persuade the King. 

The Earl of Argyle, coming, with his Highlanders, soon 
after into that same country, was by no means content with 
the doings of his predecessor, but disarmed the Ogilvies 
anew, after a fashion of his own. Expelling the garrison 
under Colonel Sibbald from Airlie Castle, he spoiled the 
house, or as the phrase then was, slighted it ; and, setting 
fire, he burned it to the ground ; the first act of that kin(^ 
in these civil wars. Other houses of the Ogilvies he plun^ 
dered and defaced; driving the inmates, women, — ladies 
some of them, and one of them of '' Good Hope," — into 
the fields. He harried others too, especially the men of 
Athole ; and having invited their chief, the Earl of that 
name, to a conference at the Ford of Lyon, he treacherously 
made him prisoner and sent him to Edinburgh. When 
Argyle, his work of destruction done, came to the army, 
he, or some one for him, made charges against Montrose of 
delay in bringing up his regiments, and also of collusion 
with the Ogilvies ; and there was a trial, or examination, 
before the military committee. The defence of Montrose, 



178 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

made, as he himself said, " before the General [Leslie], 
in hearing of the committee," was, it appears, sufficient ; 
for he got an " Exoneration" from blame ; of tenor, how- 
ever, very different from that Act of Exoneration which 
Argyle asked for himself, and got, from the next Parlia- 
ment — an act exonerating him because " of destruction of 
property ;" " putting any person, or persons, to torture or 
question ; " " putting any person, or persons, to death." 
This act of exoneration Argyle got from the Scottish Par- 
liament ; but he got none from the Ogilvies ; who remem- 
bered long, and when the time for it came, repaid. 

Here at Dunse, or soon after at Newcastle, Montrose 
moved, in the Military Committee, that all nobles and gen- 
tlemen, not members of it, should be excluded from its 
tables or sessions — a motion aimed especially at Argyle, 
who was not a member, but who, by means of this, and other 
committees, got his work done without danger to himself. 
Whether this motion prevailed or not, we do not learn; 
probably it did not ; and by these attempts to prevent 
" the indirect practisings of a few," Montrose got only 
enemies for himself. About this time, too, a bond was 
presented to him for signature, which he at once declared 
he would sooner die than sign. The object of this bond 
was to make Argyle Dictator benorth the Forth ; or such 
appeared to be its purpose to Montrose, who, roused to 
action, left the army and hastened to Edinburgh, where, 
in conversation with an old acquaintance. Lord Lindsay of 
the Byres, he learned that some such project was indeed 
in agitation. Thereupon Montrose framed another bond, 
which, signed by himself and others, at Cumbernauld, the 
seat of the Earl of Wigton, became known as the Cum- 
bernauld bond : dated August, 1640, it had signatures in 
all nineteen ; Mareschal, Montrose, Wigton, Kinghorn, 



A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSEKVATIVE. 179 

Home, Athole, Mar, Perth, Boyd, Galloway, Stormont, 
Seaforth, Erskine, Kircubrycht, Amond, Drummond, John- 
ston, Lour, D Carnegy, Master of Lour. 

" A damnable bond," says Baillie, " by which he [Mon- 
trose] thought to have sold us to the enemy :" but to us, 
nevertheless, a very innocent bond, running thus : " Where- 
as we under-subscribers, out of our duty to Religion, King, 
and Country, were forced to join ourselves in a Covenant 
for the maintenance of cithers, and every one of other, in 
that behalf: now finding how that, by the particular and 
indirect practisings of a few, the country and cause now 
depending, does so much suffer, do heartily hereby bind 
and oblige ourselves, out of our duty to all these respects 
abovementioned, but chiefly and namely that Covenant 
already signed, to wed and study all public ends which 
may tend to the safety both of Religion, Laws, and Liber- 
ties of this poor Kingdom ; and, as we are to make an ac- 
count before that Great Judge at the last day, that we shall 
contribute one with another in a unanimous and just way, 
in whatsomever may concern the public or this cause, to 
the hazard of our lives, fortunes, and estates ; neither of 
us doing, consulting, nor condescending, in any point with- 
out the consent and approbation of the whole, in so far as 
they can conveniently be had, and time may allow. And 
likeas, we swear and protest by the same oath, that in so 
far as may consist with the good and weal of the public, 
every one of us shall join and adhere to others and their 
interests, against all persons and causes whatsoever ; so 
what shall be done to one, with reservation aforesaid, shall 
be equally resented, and taken, as done to the whole 
number." 

The purpose of this bond evidently was, to stay the on- 
ward movement ; but the one " damnable " thing in it is 



180 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

indicated by the phrase, " the particular and indirect 
practisings of a few ; " and we must say that, in regard 
to these few, Montrose was altogether right : the coun- 
try and cause did suffer much in consequence of their 
doings. 

Before the army crossed the Tweed, on the 21st August, 
Montrose was again at his post in it, and saw blue ribbons 
enough : his whimsie, which we remember at Aberdeen, 
found favor, and the whole army of Covenanters, about to 
cross the borders, was blue with ribbons ; hence the song 
" Blue Bonnets over the Border." To cross the Tweed 
first on this occasion might prove to be a dangerous dis- 
tinction, and dice were cast for it among the Colonels; 
the lot, fairly or not, fell to Montrose ; and he, nothing 
loath, " went himself first through, and returned to en- 
courage his men :" or, in words of his own, " I was of all 
myself the first that put foot in the water, and led over a 
regiment in view of the whole army." The whole army, 
looking out over the water that day, saw a man worth 
seeing and willing to be seen. Of middle stature, or a 
little above it ; the body stout and compact, with " exqui- 
sitely proportioned limbs ;" a strong man, yet active and 
graceful. The long hair, falling down beneath the cap 
or bonnet, curled a little where it touched the broad shoul- 
ders. Coming up from the river, on his return, he was 
wet to the waist ; showing the depth of the stream ; a 
matter of some interest to many of the blue-ribboned host 
ranged along the banks of it. Having thus encouraged 
his men, Montrose led his regiment into the water ; all got 
across safely save one man, a land-lubber I suppose, who 
was drowned. The whole army followed ; the horse stand- 
ing in the stream as breakwater for the foot ; and Tweed, 
on that August day, was all alive. Marching forward, the 



A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 181 

Covenanters, somewhat to their astonishment, met little 
opposition ; and, on the last day of that month, they entered 
and took possession of Newcastle on Tyne. 

Baillie, writing of this time while the Scots were at 
Newcastle, says : " What aillit our officers is not yet weel 
known ; only Montrose, whose pride was long ago intol- 
erable, and meaning very doubtsome, was found to have 
intercourse of letters with the King, for which he was 
accused publickly by the General in the face of the Com- 
mittee. His bedfellow, Drummond, his cousin, Flem- 
ming, his ally, Boyd, and too many others, were thought 
too much to be of his humour. The coldness of the good 
old General and diligence of the preachers did shortly cast 
water on this spunk, beginning most untimely to reek." 
By other accounts of the matter it appears that Montrose 
did at this time write a letter to the King. Dr. Wishart, 
his first biographer, says : " This being stolen away in 
the night, and copied out by the King's own bed-chamber 
men, — men most endeared to the King of all the world, 
— was sent back by them to the Covenanters at New- 
castle," — sent, says another, by William Murray. He, 
"little Will Murray, was the man who, in October, 1640, 
sent to Newcastle the copies of his letters which he had 
written to the King, then at York." But there was no 
evidence of more than one letter ; which, probably, was 
a very innocent one, as the Covenanters did not then, or 
afterwards, make its contents public. Indeed, Montrose 
himself, when accused before the Committee, at once 
avowed the act, asserted his right to correspond with the 
King, and challenged any one to say it was treason. 
Soon after this, on rumor of the Cumbernauld bond, 
Argyle got from one of the parties to it. Lord Amond, 
Lieutenant General of the Army, such information in re- 

16 



182 JAMES GKAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

gard to it as he wanted. Summoned, with other signers, 
before the Committee at Edinburgh, Montrose promptly- 
appeared, avowed and justified the act, and produced 
the bond itself. " Some of the ministers and other fiery 
spirits pressed that their lives might go for it ; " but the 
more politic thought it better not to go to extremity with 
such men. 

The Covenanters at Newcastle sent messengers to the 
King ^vith assurances of loyalty, and of submission to 
his gracious will, provided he would grant their desires. 
Commissioners were appointed, and negotiations com- 
menced at Rippon ; but soon, unfortunately for the King, 
the commissioners removed to London. The trial of the 
Earl of Strafford, going on there at the time, became very- 
interesting to the Scotchmen who were quite as desirous 
of the Earl's condemnation as of concluding a treaty with 
the King. The army of Covenanters, this treaty pending, 
remained long inactive at Newcastle ; and Montrose, and 
other of its officers, having little to do, were often away. 
The young and discontented Earl, now as at other times, 
■was rather wanting in that safest of virtues, prudence. 
Early in the year 1641, riding one day from Chester to 
Newcastle, with the General Alexander Leslie and Colonel 
John Cochrane by his side, he said to the Colonel : " that 
he could prove there were some of the prime leaders of 
the business in the country guilty of high treason," "and 
that they had entered into motions for deposing the King." 
He said something, too, of the scheme for cantoning the 
country, and of Argyle's " bonds of manrent." The Col- 
onel answered : " that these were discourses whereof he 
desired not to hear, and entreated his Lordship not to 
enter any further on that purpose, but to leave it, and 
speak of some other subjects ; which he did." The old 



A COYENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 183 

General said not a word, or none that we hear of; he 
could not only hold his tongue, but could close his ears to 
much ; which faculty had been of use to him before, but 
never, in his long life, of so great use as now. Baillie 
says : " We were feared that emulation among our nobles 
might have done harm when they should be mett in the 
fields ; bot such was the wisdom and authority of that 
old, little, crooked soldier, that all, with one incredible 
submission, from the beginning to the end, gave over 
themselves to be guided by him." He gave " his direc- 
tions in a very homely and simple form, as if they had 
been but the advices of their neighbor and companion ; " 
and this General Alexander Leslie was, evidently, an in- 
valuable man to the Covenanters. Montrose, however, 
had no such prudent ways ; and soon after, in his lodgings 
at Newcastle, he said to the same Colonel : " Think you 
not but I can prove what I said to you the other day ? " 
and was again requested not to speak of such things. 

Of another matter, which made great talk and com- 
motion at that time, we have authentic account in the 
answer of the accused parties to a libel framed by Archi- 
bald Johnston : " The Earl of Montrose, Lord Napier, 
Sir George Stirling of Keir, and Sir Archibald Stewart of 
Blackball, Knights, having occasion to meet often, did 
then deplore the hard estate the country was in : our 
Religion not secured, and with it our Liberties being in 
danger ; Laws silenced ; Justice, and the course of Judi- 
catories, obstructed ; " in fact, the whole economy of the 
country deranged ; " and besides these present evils, fear- 
ing worse to follow : the King's authority being much 
shaken by the late troubles ; knowing well that the neces- 
sary consequences and effects of a weak sovereign power 
are anarchy and confusion, the tyranny of subjects, the 



184 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

most insatiable and insupportable t5rranny of the world, 
without hope of redress from the Prince, curbed and re- 
strained from the lawful use of his power ; factions and 
distractions within ; opportunity to enemies abroad, and to 
ill-affected subjects at home, to kindle a fire in the State 
which can hardly be quenched — unless the Almighty of 
his great mercy prevent it — without the ruin of King, 
People, and State." Therefore, after much consideration 
of the matter, " they thought if his Majesty would be 
pleased to come in person to Scotland and give his people 
satisfaction in point of Religion and just Liberties, he 
should thereby settle his own authority, and cure all the 
distempers and distractions among his subjects." And 
Lieutenant Colonel Walter Stewart going at this time to 
court about his own business, they employed him to deal 
with the Duke of Lennox to persuade his Majesty to a 
"journey to Scotland for the effect aforesaid." But this 
Colonel Stewart proved, unfortunately, to be a very unfit 
person for this purpose, and he served only to make bad 
worse. 

These men, called afterwards "the Plotters," were a 
family party. Lord Napier we knew long ago as guardian 
of Montrose, and husband of his sister Margaret ; Sir 
George Stirling of Keir was married to that sister's daugh- 
ter ; and the wife of Sir Archibald Stewart was the sister 
of Keir. That these men, meeting often at their family 
parties, did discuss matters of public import, with a very 
earnest desire to put an end to intolerable evils, we need 
not doubt. Their project of getting the King in person 
to come to Scotland would have been in every respect a 
good one, if Charles the First had really been the king 
they supposed him to be. But Montrose, it appears, had 
yet another project ; one full of danger to himself, but 



A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 185 

honest and honorable. At the next Parliament, in pres- 
ence of the King, if the King would come, he intended to 
denounce the Marquis of Hamilton, the Earl of Argyle, 
and perhaps other nobles, as traitors to King and country ; 
nor did he conceal his purpose. Early in February of that 
year 1641, when on a visit to Lord Stormont at Scone, he, 
by his own appointment, had a meeting with three minis- 
ters of the Kirk, — ministers of congregations well known 
to the Earl, and with whom he, naturally enough, would 
like to stand well, — Robert Murray of Methven in Perth- 
shire ; John Graham of Auchterarder, near his own castle 
of Kincardine ; and John Robertson of Perth. To these 
ministers Montrose gave explanations in regard to the 
Cumbernauld Bond : that there were schemes for canton- 
ing the country ; creating a dictator benorth the Forth ; 
in short, that the said bond was for the purpose of coun- 
teracting "the indirect practisings of a few" dangerous 
men. When Mr. Murray " entreated his Lordship to 
unity," his Lordship answered: "he loved unity, and 
would clear himself before the Parliament and General 
Assembly ; " and when Mr. Murray said that " would 
hinder the settling of the common cause," he answered : 
"he should do it in such a way as could not wrong the 
public ; because he would not make the challenge till the 
public business was settled, and then he would put it off 
himself and lay it on those who had calumniated him." 
Here, the Earl being called to dinner, the conversation 
terminated abruptly, without any injunction of secrecy ; 
indeed, he, in his large, careless way, had rarely any 
thought of concealment. These conferences were, first, 
with Mr. Murray, in Margaret Donaldson's house, where 
the Earl had his lodgings when in Perth ; and, the next 
day, with the three ministers, at Scone Abbey near that 
16* 



186 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

city ; and they, having interesting news to tell, told it soon 
to their brethren of the neighborhood, and they, again, told 
it to others, as is the way of men and women in all times. 
Leading Covenanters, startled by the news, were soon 
astir, determined, if possible, to prevent the coming of 
the King to Scotland. In order to understand the posi- 
tion of Montrose at this time, and his purpose, we must 
read some parts of his letter to the King ; a letter written 
in the spring of this year 1641, in which he advised and 
urged his Majesty to come into Scotland. Speaking of 
the Scottish people, he says : " They have no other end 
but to preserve their religion in purity and their liberties 
entire ; that they intend the overthrow of monarchical 
government, is a calumny ; " and he counsels the King : 
*' Satisfy them in point of Religion and Liberties, when 
ye come here, in a loving and free manner," " for religious 
subjects, and such as enjoy their lawful Liberties, obey 
better and love more than the godless and servile, who do 
all out of base fear, which begets hate." — " Suflfer them 
not to meddle or dispute of your power ; it is an instru- 
ment subjects never yet handled well." — " On the other 
side, aim not at absoluteness ; it endangers your estate 
and stirs up troubles. The people of the western parts 
of the world could never endure it any long time, and they 
of Scotland less than any." — " Practise, sir, the temperate 
government ; it fitteth the humor and disposition of the 
nation best ; it is most strong, most powerful, and most 
durable of any." Better counsel this King never beard ; 
and we can see pretty plainly how, and to what extent, 
Montrose was guilty. He was guilty of rebellion against 
some of the leaders of the popular movement — Argyle, 
Rothes, Loudon, and others ; especially guilty towards 
Argyle. " Montrose," says Clarendon, " had always a 



A COVENANTEE STILL, BUT CONSERYATIVE. 187 

great contempt of the Earl of Argyle, as he was too apt 
to contemn those he did not love." A truer version would 
be, that he could not pretend to love the men he con- 
temned. 

Montrose believed that the people of Scotland were 
loyal to their King, and required of him only their just 
rights, but that they were deceived and misled by Argyle 
and other designing men, and were going forward under 
such guidance to no good end. He counsels his Majesty 
therefore to come forward himself; to thrust aside all bad 
nobles who stand between him and his people ; and, in 
short, to be a real King, with a touch of the father in 
him, who can satisfy his subjects " in a loving and free 
manner." Good counsel certainly ; but what good can 
come of advising the weak to be strong ? Montrose, how- 
ever, did what he could to help the poor King to enter on 
the right way ; with characteristic boldness he denounced 
as traitors to King and country, not only Argyle and his 
faction, but he denounced also his Majesty's Commissioner 
and favorite Hamilton, who professed to be leader for the 
King in Scotland : and thereby he took too much in hand, 
for Argyle alone had been, at this time, enough for him. 
Argyle, with his clan Campbell, large possessions, and sway 
in the Highlands, was the most powerful subject in Scot- 
land ; powerful too because He rides on the riggin' o' the 
Kirk ; aloft there seen of all men in that time ; and battle 
with him was in effect battle with the Kirk. 

At the requisition of this man, Graham, the minister of 
Auchterarder, was, on the 19th of May, 1641, summoned 
before a select Committee of the Estates, to give an ac- 
count and explanation of his speech to his Presbytery, in 
which he had attempted some justification of the signers 
of the Cumbernauld Bond ; and, in doing so, had alluded 



188 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

to the conferences with Montrose at Perth and Scone. 
Thereupon Mr. Robert Murray, the minister of Methven, 
and the Earl of Montrose, were summoned before the same 
Committee ; and on the 27th of the same month they ap- 
peared. We remember the figure of the man crossing 
Tweed ; and now, that we have him within doors, we will 
look in his face a little. The complexion is fair, " betwixt 
pale and red ; " healthy blood showing itself through 
clear skin. The features, unlike those in the portrait at 
Kinnaird, have all arrived at manhood now ; but the nose 
is still prominent, " like the ancient sign of magnanimity 
in the Kings of Persia : " the lips have good play in them, 
but when not in motion they come together firmly: the 
forehead is not high over the central line of it, and else- 
where it is hidden by the down-falling hair, which is of 
dark auburn, or chestnut color. The face is all calm, com- 
posed ; save the large, dark-gray eyes, which are quick and 
can flash. The man is in danger now ; but two little 
things, " honesty and courage," companions often, have 
saved him before, and shall help him again. 

The minister of Methven, called on to testify before this 
Committee, hesitated, delayed, and was unwilling, request- 
ing Montrose to speak first, till he, impatient, said : 
*' Come, come, Mr. Robert, emit your declaration without 
more ado : you know very well that you can soon put it 
off your hands ; " but Mr. Robert, not willing yet, an- 
swered: "Then it is your Lordship must take it off" my 
hands ; therefore, my Lord, tell your part, and I will tell 
mine." Urged again to speak, Mr. Murray gave his ac- 
count of the Earl's statements at Perth and Scone, the 
substance of which we know. Thereupon Montrose not 
only admitted the correctness of the account, but reca- 
pitulated his reasons for the Cumbernauld bond. When he 



A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 189 

had concluded his speech, and the question was put to 
him : Whether he had named the Earl of Argyle ? he 
replied : "I did name the Earl of Argyle ; I named Argyle 
as the man who was to have the rule benorth Forth, and 
as the man who discoursed of deposing the King. But I 
am not the author, or inventor, of these things ; I will lay 
it down at the right door : what I told Mr. Robert Murray 
was that some of the particulars of my statement were 
consistent with my own knowledge ; that there were ten 
or twelve others would bear me witness ; and that, with 
regard to all I had asserted, there would be some one to 
prove, or take it off my hands." Required then to pro- 
duce his author, Montrose said : " Since I am desired to 
do so, and having named the Earl of Argyle, which I was 
forced to do, I desire that he now express his own knowl- 
edge of this business." Then Argyle, called on to speak, 
said : " That he thought it incumbent to clear himself, and 
would do it if the Committee would appoint him. The 
Earl of Argyle, by his oath unrequired, declared that [he 
had never] heard of such a matter, and would make it 
good that [the person] who would say that he was the man 
who spoke of deposing the King, or of his knowledge of 
these bonds, was a liar and a base . . . ." The last word 
of Argyle's speech is in the manuscript illegible, as are 
also some others which have been guessed at in the places 
indicated. Argyle having thus given his denial, Montrose 
named Lord Lindsay as his informant as to one part of the 
matter, and John Stewart, of Lady well, as to the other — 
that, namely, of deposing the King. He said, also, that 
Stewart's statements had been made in the presence of 
gentlemen whom he named ; and he referred to the Earls 
of Mar and Cassilis as having knowledge in regard to the 
Dictatorship proposed for Argyle. The proceedings against 
Montrose and the other " plotters," Napier, Stirling of 



190 JAMES GKAHAM, MAKQTJIS OF MONTKOSE. 

Keir, and Stewart of Blackball, are given in full in Mr. 
Mark Napier's Memoirs of Montrose : but we must cur- 
tail and be brief bere. 

John Stewart of Ladywell, called by Montrose to testify, 
appeared on the last day of May, and subscribed a paper 
containing all that Montrose had affirmed in his name : 
whereupon Argyle broke out into a passion, " and, with 
great oaths, denied the whole and every point thereof; 
whereat many wondered." " My Lord," said Stewart, " I 
heard you speak these words in Athole, in presence of a 
great many people, whereof you are in good memory." 
John Stewart, after this testimony, was imprisoned ; and 
of the dealings with him then, the minister of Stirling, 
Reverend Henry Guthrie, who attended him on the scaffold, 
has given an account. The result of these dealings in 
prison was, that Stewart wrote a letter to Argyle, and made 
a formal statement, recanting in part. He said now, that 
he had been desired by the Earls of Montrose and Athole 
to inquire into certain matters relating to Argyle ; the im- 
posing of bonds ; deposing of the King ; setting up of a 
Dictator. He said, also, that his instructions were given 
him with a " caveat by Montrose that I should rather keep 
me within bounds than exceed." Argyle's speech at the 
Ford of Lyon, he now said, *' was general of all Kings," 
and that he, Stewart, applied it to the " present " one ; 
and that he had forged other speeches "out of malice to 
his Lordship." Though Stewart now denied having named 
the Earl of Argyle as the person who had been proposed 
for Dictator, yet his admissions, qualified as they were, 
substantially confirmed the statements of Montrose iu 
other respects. Stewart also confessed, or asserted, that 
he, "by advice, or counsel, of Montrose, and the other 
plotters," had " sent a copy of those speeches" [Argyle's 
at the Ford of Lyon] " to the King by one Captain Walter 



A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 191 

Stewart." Whereupon the Committee " set watches to 
attend that Captain's return : " not in vain it appears ; for 
*' Walter was happily rancontered upon Friday betwixt 
Cokburn's Path and Haddington by one was sent expressly 
to meet him, and conveyed to Balmerino's lodgings at 
nine o'clock at night, where I " [if not a Mr. Hope, then 
a Mr. Anonymous] " was the first man came in after him, 
about some other business with my Lord. After he 
[Walter] denied he had any more papers than were in his 
cloth bag, there was a leather bag found in the pannel of 
his saddle ; wherein was a letter from the King to Mon- 
trose : " and also certain wonderful papers, which we will 
call the ABC papers. The Committee, Lord Balmerino 
at the head of it, ' ' had many strange businesses in hand 
here this last week," which was th« first week in June, 
1641. *' The Plot," to minds full of fear and suspicion, 
began to be very horrible : but we must give entire that 
letter from the King : — 

Montrose : 

I conceive that nothing can conduce more to a firm and 
solid peace, and to giving full contentment and satisfaction 
to my people, than that I should be present at the ensuing 
session of Parliament. This being the reason of my 
journey, and having a perfect intention to satisfy my peo- 
ple in their religion and just liberties, I do expect from 
them that retribution of thankfulness, as becomes grateful 
and devoteful subjects : which being a business wherein, 
not only my service, but likewise the good of the whole 
Kingdom, is so much concerned, I cannot but expect that 
your particular endeavours will be herein concurring. In 
confidence of which I rest your assured friend, 

Charles R. 
Whitehall, 22d May, 1641. 



192 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

Of this letter, written apparently in reply to that one 
sent by Montrose of which we have given extracts, the 
Committee could make little treason ; but the ABC papers 
were fruitful enough. These contained enigmatical letters 
and names, of which Walter Stewart gave, or attempted to 
give, explanations. ABC meant Montrose, Napier, Stir- 
ling of Keir, and Stewart of Blackball ; the Serpent meant 
Hamilton ; Genero, specially Montrose ; Dromedary, Ar- 
gyle ; L, the King ; and so on, with many more. These 
papers, Walter Stewart said, contained the instructions 
given him by Montrose and his fellow-plotters ; but they 
and all others implicated denied all knowledge of them. 
Walter Stewart, according to his cousin, the Earl of Tra- 
quair, " a fool or half-witted body," probably made them 
to assist his own memory, and did not himself know their 
meaning, giving at different times different accounts of 
them ; but they served as groundwork of horrible suspi- 
cions to the unwise, and the enemies of Montrose found 
them useful. On the 1 1th of June, " the Plotters " — Mon- 
trose, Lord Napier, Sir George Stirling of Keir, and Sir 
Archibald Stewart of Blackball — were sent prisoners to 
the Castle of Edinburgh; and on the 21st of the month 
Montrose was examined in the castle " by a few ; " and 
the next day he was summoned before the Committee of 
Estates. But the Earl of Sutherland, the Committee's 
messenger to him, returned with only a letter, in which 
the prisoner respectfully declined to appear ; giving for 
reason, that, as the charge against him " seemed to be 
that of conspiring against the public weal," " I did con- 
ceive, in my humble opinion with all respect, the more 
public my trial were, the further should it tend to the sat- 
isfaction and contentment thereof; that, as the scandal 
was notorious and national, so likewise should the expia- 
tion be, one way or another." 



A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 193 

But on the morrow the constable of the castle received 
orders to deliver Montrose to the city authorities ; and he 
was brought down to the committee-room under guard of 
four hundred men ; but when there he refused to answer 
the questions put to him, referring always to his letter of 
the preceding day, in which he had demanded a public 
trial. The Committee therefore declared him " disobedient 
and contumacious," and sent him back to the castle. 
Stirling of Keir, summoned to answer, also refused, and 
was pronounced " contumacious ; " but the old Lord Na- 
pier, a man of much experience in public life, was more 
prudent and politic. His own account of the matter, found 
in the charter chest of the Napiers, is in all respects trust- 
worthy ; and, instead of other accounts less trustworthy, we 
will give parts of that in evidence. On the 23d of June 
he appeared, and gave, he says, " negative answers " to 
much, " without discourse," and so " avoided contumacy." 
" Then I was desired to look on Walter Stewart's notes in 
a long small piece of paper, and was demanded if I had 
seen them ? I said, no. Then they were read, and I was 
posed what was meant by ^c, d^c, and the Elephant, and 
Dromedary^ and the Serpent in the bosom 7 I said I knew 
nothing of these hieroglyphics ; that they were Walter's 
own notes. But then I was demanded if I knew the pur- 
pose was expressed under these notes ? I said I knew not 
what they meant. They told me then that the Elephant 
was my Lord Hamilton, who was [also] the Serpent in the 
losom, and that he had strange ambitious designs. I 
answered that there was never any such purpose among 
us ; for I was resolved to answer to all that was demanded, 
and not as in my depositions, with a no ; as indeed I knew 
not what they meant. Then I was asked if we three did 
not take an oath of secrecy before we went to the castle ? 

17 



194 JAMES GEAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

I answered we never took one oath or other. Then they 
read in the paper of one Signior Puritano. I demanded 
who that was : they told me it was my Lord Seaforth : 
whereupon I fell a laughing and said he was slandered ; 
and they fell in a great laughter." And so they went on, 
asking about the Earl of Wigton, the Earl of Traquair, 
and the dissolving of the army : to all the wise and inno- 
cent old Lord gave answer, till they concluded. " Then I 
was removed, and a long consultation was had concerning 
me. At length I was called in, and there in great pomp 
of words, and with large commendations of me in the 
course of my life, this sentence was pronounced ; that the 
Committee had ordained me to have free liberty and to 
repair to my own house to do my lawful business ; and an 
act read whereby I was obliged to answer them when they 
should call for me. To which I replied that I knew that 
sentence proceeded from their favour to me ; but truly in 
very deed it was no favour, but the doubling of a disgrace, 
first to send me to the castle as a traitor to God and my 
country, in the view of all the people ; and then, by way 
of favour, to let me go ; which, if I did accept, was a 
certain, though a tacit, confession of guiltiness. It was 
answered that it was not only out of favour, but out of 
consideration that I was less guilty than the rest. To 
which I said that I knew that I was as guilty as any of the 
rest ; and they knew nothing which they did not impart to 
me, and had not my approbation. At which they all cried 
out that I was much deceived. Then I was earnestly 
desired not to contemn the Committee's sentence, but to 
accept of it. To which I said that the Commitee might 
command me to hazard my life, and means, to do them 
service ; but this was my honour, which I esteemed dearer 
than either of the other two : for if my releasement were 



A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 195 

not got by means of my innocency, after trial, and not by 
favour, I could not avoid imputation : all the world would 
think I had taken a way apart from Montrose and Keir, 
and deponed something to their prejudice, which procured 
this special favour to myself ; and therefore entreated them 
not to put a double indignity on me, whom they esteemed 
less guilty, when as yet they had put only a single on 
them. Whereupon I was removed, and there followed me 
my Lord Yester, Old Durie, and Archibald Campbell ; who 
for two hours I think, plied me with arguments to accept 
and obey the Committee's pleasure. Not being able to 
persuade me, the Committee gave warrant to receive me in 
again to the Castle, to be advised for a night. So I retired : 
and two or three of them followed me to the door, and by 
the cloak stayed me there ; but all in vain." The enemies 
of Montrose had got in this brave old man, well known in 
Scotland, one prisoner of whom they would willingly have 
relieved themselves ; but, as he could not be tempted to 
desert his friends, he was included in the libel then issued 
against them. This libel, bearing date June 24, 1641, 
drawn up by Archibald Johnston of Warriston, fills thirty- 
three folio pages in the Memorials of Montrose, and is one 
of the curiosities of legal literature. In reading it, how- 
ever, or in attempting to read it, cheerful thoughts arise : 
two hundred years have certainly brought to us some 
improvement in this kind ; and we can therefore hope that 
in two hundred years more mankind, long suffering, may 
arrive within hailing distance of satisfaction. Montrose 
made written answer to this libel, giving a complete vindi- 
cation of himself in all respects save one, for he still 
alluded to " the particular and indirect practisings of a 
few," and these few were therefore determined to crush 
him if possible. At the close of this answer he says that 



196 JAMES GRAHAM, MAEQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

certain parties had long had designs against him, and, that 
two or three years before these proceedings they had said, 
" that my sword should be taken from my side before two 
months passed." 

Soon after this libel was framed, John Stewart of Lady- 
well, convicted of " false speeches by him against the 
Earl of Argyle " was beheaded at the Cross of Edinburgh : 
he, who, while in prison, recanted his first assertions, in 
hope thereby to save his head, now at last, when such hope 
was lost, canted back and reaffirmed them. 

The Parliament of this year 1641 met on the 15th of 
July, Lord Burleigh being President of it ; and, on the 
27th, Montrose was admitted to a hearing. Being now be- 
fore a tribunal which he acknowledged to be competent, 
the Earl with quiet dignity awaited the commands of his 
peers. " At first entry, after low curtacie, the President 
demanded my Lord what he had to say." My Lord an- 
swered : "I have no further than what I have already 
humbly represented by my supplication ; and am in all 
humility to expect your Lordship's pleasure in what I 
shall be commanded." Removed and recalled three several 
times, he made each time substantially the same reply as 
at first. At last, however, being urged, he spoke more at 
large, but to the same eff"ect ; concluding thus : " My reso- 
lution is to carry along with me fidelity and honor to the 
grave ; and therefore heartily wish that I may be put to 
all that is possible to question me upon ; and either shall 
I give your Lordships all full and humble content, or oth- 
erwise not only not deprecate, but petition all the most 
condign censure that your Lordships shall think suitable to 
so much demerit." According to the parliamentary record : 
" He off"ered himself ready to answer and desired no con- 
tinuance : and desired extracts of the depositions and 
papers whereupon his summons was founded." 



A COVENANTEK STILL, BUT CONSERVATITE. 197 

At some time in this summer of 1641, the Committee 
sent Lord Sinclair, with a troop of horse, to search in the 
private repositories of Montrose for evidence of misdeeds 
and misintents : his lodgings in the Canongate, Edinburgh, 
his house of Old Montrose, his Castles of Kincardine and 
Mugdok, were all searched. According to the Scotch his- 
torian Spalding, Lord Sinclair and his troop broke down 
gates and doors, and " demolished his stately house of 
Mugdok." But Sinclair " found nothing therein relating 
to public affairs ; " only, instead thereof, he found some 
" letters from ladies to him in his younger years flowered 
with Arcadian compliments." Sinful enough, said some 
members of the Kirk. Besides these letters, the searchers 
*' took to Edinburgh with them the Earl's secretary, called 
Lamhy^ to try what he knew ;" which, as we hear nothing 
of his disclosures, was certainly not any thing treasonable. 
They took also, it appears, one other paper ; according to 
Baillie, " a paper written by Montrose's own hand, after 
the burning of the Band, full of vain humanities, magni- 
fying to the skies his own courses, and debasing to hell his 
opposites ; " probably not quite so bad as that, however. 
Montrose's own account of it, given on his examination 
on the 5th of August, is, that the paper was " written by 
James Graham, his Lordship's servant ; " that " it was cor- 
rected with his Lordship's hand ; " " but it was his Lord- 
ship's own private thoughts, not to come without the 
bounds of his own charter chest " — a paper relating to the 
Cumbernauld Bond, contents now unknown ; but his Lord- 
ship told the Committee "he did avow the paper." More 
interesting to us than these papers, is the fact that his 
Lordship continued constant to old servants. Lamhy, his 
secretary, carried by Lord Sinclair to Edinburgh, was, years 
before, his tutor at college — Master John Lambye, who 
17* 



198 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

kept good cash accounts, and had no inkling of their final 
uses. James Graham, his servant at this time, was long 
ago his " domestic servitor; " and we may expect to meet 
Master William Forrett again when we meet the Earl's 
boys. 

At this same examination in August, Montrose, " being 
interrogated whether his Lordship had written any letters 
to his Majesty the time he was in Berwick, declares, to 
his memory, he did write none ; but that in the time of the 
Parliament, or Assembly, his Lordship did write one or 
two ; and after that time, to his Lordship's memory, did 
write none till the army was at Newcastle ; at which time 
his Lordship did write one letter ; neither does his Lord- 
ship remember particularly the tenor of any of those 
letters." 

On Saturday, August 14th, King Charles arrived at 
Holyrood House ; and, on the 1 7th, held the Parliament 
in person ; Hamilton bearing the crown, and Argyle the 
sceptre. On the 21st, Montrose petitioned for considera- 
tion of his case ; and, soon after, the prisoners petitioned 
jointly *' to be released on caution ; " but by a plurality of 
voices it was decided to give " no answer untill all public 
business was ended." On the 28th, however, Napier, 
Keir, and Blackball, were called before the Parliament : 
and of this hearing we have Napier's own account ; too 
long, however, for insertion here. " How soon we came 
in at the outer door, his Majesty took off his hat and we 
approached. The President bade us go up on the stage 
appointed for delinquents." But instead of a hearing, the 
delinquents were informed that none could be had before 
the 8th of September. Napier desired leave to speak ; 
his request, denied at first, \vas granted at last. At 
the conclusion of the speech " His Majesty," he says, 



A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 199 

" nodded to me, and seemed to be well pleased. So we 
took our leave." 

Sir Patrick Weems, at this time attendant on the King, 
writes, under date September 25th, 1641 : " His Majesty 
has engaged his royal promise to Montrose not to leave 
the Kingdom till he come to his trial : for, if he leave 
him, all the world will not save his life." Sir Patrick is 
probably right in this ; and the real fact is, that the leading 
Covenanters were bargaining with the King, and would 
consent to no trial or release of the prisoners till the ne- 
gotiation came to a conclusion satisfactory to them. The 
poor King, with few to aid him, had little chance of a con- 
clusion satisfactory to himself; and an enigmatical occur- 
rence of the time, — a horrible plot, or rumor of a plot, — 
called in Scottish history the Incident, made his case still 
more hopeless. This Incident, founded, as now appears, 
almost, if not altogether, on fear and suspicion, found 
ready believers at the time of it, and became, in after 
times, the occasion of a groundless calumny against Mon- 
trose. We will therefore give some account of it ; such 
account as we can. 

King Charles, then in Edinburgh, was very unwelcome 
to some, at least, of the leading Covenanters, who knew 
that Montrose had urged his coming ; while they, for that 
reason and other reasons, had done their utmost to pre- 
vent it. The Plotters, as they were called, — friends of 
the King and opponents of Argyle, — were in the castle, 
held prisoners by the Covenanters ; and Montrose, the 
chief of them, had, as was well known, intended to bring 
charges in the Parliament, then sitting, against Hamilton 
and Argyle — charges which were not without foundation. 
Argyle, " a timorous man," was guilty towards the King ; 
Hamilton was guilty at least of double-dealing with him ; 



200 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

and these men, intimate friends at this time, were guilty 
too towards Montrose, who, as they well knew, had been 
calumniated. This man, of high spirit, would be likely 
to avenge his own wrongs, and the King's, and they stood 
in fear of him even while he lay shut close in his prison- 
house. 

But we must not omit to speak of William Murray, one 
of the strangest figures of that time. *' Little Will Mur- 
ray," son of the Minister of Dysart in Fife, nephew of the 
Reverend Robert Murray of Methven, was a gentleman of 
the King's bedchamber. " Being much in the King's 
confidence, he was employed by him in many secret nego- 
tiations ; " "a creature of Hamilton's," too, it is said, and 
intimate with the leaders of the Covenanters. According 
to Bishop Burnet, *' this man had one particular quality, 
that when he was drunk, which was pretty often, he was 
upon a most exact reserve, though he was pretty open at 
all other times." Will Murray, " deep in all the plots," 
was, I think, false to all parties ; and in this time, at Edin- 
burgh, he was very busy. Through him there was some 
correspondence by letters between the King and Mon- 
trose, probably by connivance of leading Covenanters ; for 
after the fact was disclosed to them by Murray, they got 
him appointed Agent of the Kirk at London. 

At this time fears and suspicions were rife in Edin- 
burgh, and suddenly, one day in October, Earl Argyle, 
Marquis Hamilton, and his brother Earl Lanerick, fled in 
haste to Kinneil, a house of Hamilton's not far from 
Edinburgh ; and rumors ran through the city of a plot to 
assassinate these noblemen. Baillie says : " These hor- 
rible designs breaking out, all the city was in a flought ; 
Hamilton, Argyle, and Lanerick fled to Kinneil ; and 
many noblemen caused watch their houses." " The King 



A COVENANTEE STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 201 

complained much of the vile slanders which Hamilton's 
needless flight and fear had brought on him," and " he 
urged a present trial in the face of Parliament for the 
more clearing of his innocence." But this was rejected 
" as very unmeet," and " a committee was appointed for 
a more accurate trial in private than could be had in pub- 
lic." There were inquiries by committees, and otherwise, 
in relation to this affair ; but Montrose was in no way im- 
plicated ; and the Earl of Lanerick, who wrote an account 
of " the Incident," does not even mention Montrose in it. 
All that appears in history connecting him with this plot 
for assassination, if any such plot there was, is, as Mr. 
Mark Napier shows, without foundation in fact or prob- 
ability. 

This visit of the King to his Scottish people was full 
of trouble ; for there came, in the latter days of this Octo- 
ber, news of that horrible massacre of Protestants in Ire- 
land by Roman Catholics, and the King had to announce 
it in Parliament on the 28th of that month. The people, 
hearing the frightful story, called to mind that Queen 
Henrietta, herself a Romanist, had much influence over 
her husband ; and the poor King, who had real sins and 
short-comings enough of his own to answer for, was sus- 
pected of worse than his own. He had therefore great 
difficulties in his way. Timid and suspicious men are 
always cunning too ; and Argyle, and others of his kind, 
made the incident and massacre subservient to their own 
purposes. Baillie, who could look behind the scenes, says 
that at this time " a committee was appointed which, in 
two or three nights, did agree all things privately with the 
King, mostly according to Argyle's mind ; " and soon the 
result appeared in public. The " Plotters," Montrose 
and his three friends, were liberated without the trial 



202 JAMES GKAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

they had so long demanded, " but on caution that hence-! 
forth they carry themselves soberly and discreetly." They 
were, also, to hold themselves in readiness to appear, 
when cited, before a committee ; but the time of action 
for the committee was limited to the 1st of the next 
March. An act, passed in the King's name, says : 
" Taking in good part the respect and thankfulness of 
this Parliament in remitting to me those who are cited 
as incendiaries and others, I will not employ any of these 
persons in offices, or places of Court or State, without 
consent of Parliament, nor grant them access to my per- 
son." The King, furthermore, agreed not to appoint his 
Privy Council, Officers of State, or Lords of Session, with- 
out the advice or consent of Parliament. General Alex- 
ander Leslie was raised to the peerage : Lord of Balgony 
and Earl of Leven, he, little, old, and crooked, would 
thereupon hold his head higher if he could. The Earl of 
Argyle, now made Marquis, would, it was hoped, try a little 
to serve the King ; who had forgotten what the old father 
said long ago. Lord Amond, Lieutenant General under 
Leslie, became Earl of Callender ; and Lord Lindsay Earl 
of Crawford. Others, of less note, got promotion too ; 
and one of the ministers of the Kirk, Alexander Hender- 
son, " Chief Apostle of the Covenant," got the gift of the 
revenue of the chapel royal ; and he, having a man's heart 
in him, deserved it ; but Mr. Henderson was somewhat 
out of favor with the other leaders of the cause at this 
time. Baillie, writing of him, says : " Some expressions 
in his sermons before the King, and his familiarity with 
Will Murray, who was thought to be deep in all the plots, 
made him somewhat less haunted by our nobility than 
before." 

The weak King, having thus rewarded his opponents and 



A COTENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 203 

disabled his friends, went sorrowful away to deal with 
other coils ; and Montrose, after an imprisonment of five 
months, from the 11th of June to the 17th of November, 
1641, came forth into open air, and went to his own home ; 
not in very good health, I think ; for he said afterwards 
that he was "very unwell" this winter in Angus, which, 
as the reader may be reminded, is only another name for 
Forfarshire. Sick in body, he was doubtless ill at ease in 
mind too. The proud Earl, accused of treason against 
country and Kirk, accused even in that voluminous libel of 
*' staining his Majesty's honor and reputation," and of 
perjury, had been denied the public trial which he asked 
for so often ; and he felt himself to be deeply wronged — 
wronged by these accusations, wronged still more that he 
had been debarred from a public refutation of them. His 
friends, too, signers of the Cumbernauld Bond, and others, 
had deserted him in his time of peril ; and now, as was 
his wont when deeply moved, he gave expression to his 
feelings in verse : — 

" Then break, afflicted heart, 
And live not in these days 
When all prove merchants of their faith, 
None trusts what other says." 

These lines are part of that little poem " On the Faithless- 
ness of the Times," and they serve to show that, amid 
many personal wrongs, his saddest lament was that men 
in whom he trusted had proved faithless. But this afflicted 
heart was not one to lie down under its load ; and in these 
days, probably, he wrote his letter " On Sovereign Power," 
full of considerations forced on him by the events of the 
time. This letter is addressed to " A Friend," name now 
unknown ; and, like other writings, treating of public 
matters, appearing in the ]»ame of Montrose, was the joint 



204 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

work of himself and his best friend, Lord Napier. It is 
worth reading even now, in this heyday of Democracy : 
will the impatient reader look at bits of it ? 

*' Civil societies, so pleasing to Almighty God, cannot 
subsist without government ; nor government without a 
sovereign power to force obedience to laws and just com- 
mands ; to dispose and direct private endeavours to pub- 
lic ends ; and to unite and incorporate the several members 
into one body politic ; that with joint endeavours and abil- 
ities they may the better advance the public good. This 
sovereignty is a power over the people ; above which 
power there is none upon Earth : whose acts cannot be 
rescinded by any other ; instituted by God for his glory 
and the temporal and eternal happiness of men. This it 
is that is recorded so oft by the wisdom of ancient times 
to be sacred and inviolable ; the truest image and repre- 
sentation of the power of Almighty God upon Earth ; 
not to be bounded, disputed, meddled with at all by sub- 
jects, who can never handle it, though never so warily, 
but it is thereby wounded, and the public peace dis- 
turbed ; yet it is limited by the laws of God and Nature, 
and some laws of nations ; and by the fundamental laws 
of the country, which are those upon which sovereign 
power itself resteth : in prejudice of which a King can do 
nothing ; and those, also, which secure to the good sub- 
ject his honor, his life, and the property of his goods." 
Then, after showing what are " the essential points of sov- 
ereignty," he goes on to show that there is a sovereign 
power in Republics, as well as in Monarchies : ending this 
section of his subject thus: " If then the Lords in Re- 
publics have that power essential to sovereignty, by what 
reason can it be denied to a Prince in whose person only 
and primitively, resteth the sovereign power ; and from 



A COVENANTEK STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 205 

whom all lawful subaltern power, as from the fountain, is 
derived ? " He shows next what makes sovereign power 
strong, and what weak : " This power is strong and dura- 
ble when it is temperate, and it is temperate when it is 
possessed with moderation and limitations " as aforesaid. 
" It is weak when it is restrained " in its " essential parts ; 
and it is weak also when it is extended beyond the laws 
whereby it is bounded ; which could never be endured by 
the people of the western part of the world, and by those 
of Scotland as little as any." 

" The most fierce, insatiable, and insupportable tyranny 
in the world" is, he says, the tyranny of subjects "where 
every man of power oppresseth his neighbour," and there 
is no " hope of redress from a Prince despoiled of his 
power to punish oppressors." " In a politic consideration 
the King and his people are not two, but one body politic, 
whereof the King is the head : and so far are they from 
contrariety and opposite motions, that there is nothing good 
or ill for the one, which is not just so for the other." 
Montrose concludes, after the manner of good preachers, 
with a practical application ; an application of his general 
remarks to the then existing state of affairs in Scotland. 

The democratic reader, who has grown very impatient 
of all this, will do well to bear in mind that this Letter on 
Sovereign Power was written two hundred years ago ; and 
that fashions of thought, like other fashions, change from 
time to time. He should also call to mind that it was 
written by one born to an Earldom. " My House," said 
the Marquis of Huntly, " has risen by the Kings of Scot- 
land : it has ever stood for them, and with them shall 
fall." 

Montrose in these winter months of 1641-2, the weather 
being then " very stormy and tempestuous" in Angus, had 

18 



206 JAMES GKAHAM, MARQUIS OT MONTROSE. 

time enough for reflection on the course and tendency of 
affairs in Scotland ; which had certainly changed much 
since he, at that convention in November, 1637, first took 
part in the popular movement. At that time the Kirk of 
Scotland was in real danger. The King, urged by Arch- 
bishop Laud, and incited too by his own desire to be 
master of Scotland, had attacked the Kirk, and was im- 
posing on it the forms and ceremonies of Episcopacy ; and 
the people, long vexed by fears, rose in defence of it. 
Then the Covenant was formed, and " men and women, 
with one uplifted hand, swore it." The Earl of Montrose, 
a son of the Kirk and a born leader of the people, joined 
heart and hand in defence of " religion and just liberties.'* 
But this defensive attitude, as was indeed almost inevita- 
ble, soon changed itself. A man, threatened with attack, 
takes at first an attitude of defence ; but when action be- 
gins he becomes, by the very nature of the case, aggres- 
sive ; and if the contest continue he becomes, too often, 
destructive. If this be true of the individual man, who 
has a head of his own, and therefore some power of self- 
government and guidance, how much more is it true of a 
mass of men moving together, who, as mass, have no head, 
and therefore no self- guidance, or little. And now let the 
reader note when it was that Montrose paused in his on- 
ward course, and became conservative : it was in the fall 
of the year 1639, when the Covenanters had become, not 
only aggressive, but destructive. The Kirk, at its Gen- 
eral Assembly in August of that year, declared " Epis- 
copacy unlawful and contrary to God's word," and in the 
Parliament which held its sessions in the next month, the 
prerogatives of the King were attacked. Then, in that 
Parliament, " Montrose argued somewhat against these 
motions : " raising his voice for a King from whom he now, 
in Februaryy 1642, received the following letter: — 



a covenanter still, but conservative. 207 

Montrose : 

As I think fit in respect of your sufferings for me by 
these lines to acknowledge it to you, so I think it unfit to 
mention by writ any particulars, but to refer you to the 
faithful relation of this honest bearer Mungo Murray ; be- 
ing confident that the same generosity, which has made 
you hazard so much as you have done for my service, will 
at this time induce you to testify your affection for me as 
there shall be occasion ; assuring you that for what you 
have already done I shall ever remain your most assured 
friend, Charles R. 

Windsor, January 27, 1642. 

For one thing Montrose was certainly waiting in these 
winter months, — for the action of that Committee ap- 
pointed by Parliament, before which he and the other 
"plotters" were to appear when summoned: but no sum- 
mons came ; and the time of action for the Committee ex- 
piring by limitation on the 1st of March, he, Napier, Keir, 
and Blackball, made, on the last day of February, a rather 
indignant Protest. This paper sets forth that the Earl of 
Montrose had been allowed only one day to prepare an 
answer to the voluminous libel, so that it was " answered by 
us in two or three sheets at the most : " and, furthermore, 
that they had not been summoned to final answer and trial. 
The protest concludes thus : " We, therefore, James, Earl 
of Montrose, Archibald Lord Napier, and the Lairds of 
Keir and Blackball, in respect of the premises, and our 
diligent carriages to give all satisfaction to the most Hon- 
orable the Estates of Parliament, and to your Lordships 
from them, to the end that no wrinkle, or least shadow 
of blemish, remain upon us in this behalf, do hereby pro- 
test that we are free and exonered of all suspicion of delay 



208 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

that may be thought cast in by us why the process intentit 
against us hath not taken, or may not take, a full end : 
and that we are, and may be holden, in the same terms 
and conditions as before our charge ; or as any of our 
quality or equals, within this Kingdom in all regards 
whatsoever." 

Early in May of this year, when the Earl was probably 
at Old Montrose or some other of his houses, another 
letter came to him from the King ; which was, I suppose, 
some consolation to him in these evil days. 

Montrose : 

I know I need no arguments to induce you to my ser- 
vice. Duty and loyalty are sufficient to a man of so much 
honour as I know you to be : yet as I think this of you, 
so I will have you to believe of me, that I would not 
invite you to share of my hard fortune, if I intended you 
not to be a plentiful partaker of my good. The bearer 
will acquaint you of my designs ; whom I have com- 
manded to follow your directions in the pursuit of them. 
I will say no more, but that I am your assured friend, 

Charles R. 

York, 7th May, 16i2. 

What these designs were, or what directions Montrose 
gave to the bearer of this letter, no one now knows ; but 
we do know that at this time, when some of his personal 
and political friends appeared in public speaking a word 
for the King, he did not appear among them ; thinking, 
perhaps, that their action might have more effect without 
the countenance of one so obnoxious as himself. In the 
latter days of that month of May, 1642, his friends made 
a petition to the King's Privy Council, which, though not 



A COVENANTEK STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 209 

signed by him, had probably his consent and approval. 
Drafted by Lord Napier, and presented by Stirling of 
Keir, the petition sets forth that his Majesty's honor and 
lawful authority have of late " suffered detriment and dim- 
inution ; " and that there is reason to believe further dim- 
inution of them is intended. Its prayer is, that this state 
of things may be taken into consideration, and some vig- 
orous resolution adopted to establish and maintain his 
Majesty's authority : and the subscribers give assurance of 
their willingness and desire to cooperate towards that end. 
This petition was " rejected with disdain ; " for his Majes- 
ty's Privy Council, appointed by advice and consent of 
Parliament, had ceased to be altogether his Majesty's. 
The signers of this petition, banders, or parties to the 
Cumbernauld Bond some of them, and others loyally dis- 
posed, having at this time assembled in Edinburgh, there 
arose rumor of plots ; of a plot to assassinate Argyle : 
*' but," says Baillie, " the Marquis of Hamilton's and Ar- 
gyle's intimate familiarity, kept down the malcontents 
from any rising." Very intimate these two men certainly 
were at this time; busy making a " contract of marriage 
betwixt the Marquis of Hamilton on the part of his eldest 
daughter, the Lady Ann ; and the Marquis of Argyle on 
the part of his eldest son, the Lord Lorn, when they 
should be of age." The marriage portion and the yearly 
jointure were agreed on, and " the penalty to him who 
resiled." 

Many men in Scotland were at this time inclining 
towards the King ; among others, Alexander Henderson, 
" Chief Apostle of the Covenant," was under suspicion ; and 
in the General Assembly held at St. Andrews, the Earl of 
Dunfermline, King's commissioner, being present, he made 
an explanatory and apologetic speech : but we will let our 

18^' 



210 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

friend Baillie report it. The time is July 29, 1642. 
" Mr. A. Henderson made a long and passionate apology 
for his actions ; that the nomination of William Murray to 
be agent for the Kirk till the next Assembly, was by the 
commissioners, and not by him ; that the man had done 
many good offices, and none evil, to the Church ; that he 
had refused to serve any longer in that place." Further- 
more, *' that what himself (Henderson) had gotten from 
the King, for his attendance in a painful charge, was no 
pension ; that he had touched, as yet, none of it ; that 
he was vexed with injurious calumnies. After the vent- 
ing of his stomach, to all our much compassion, the gra- 
cious man was eased in his mind, and more cheerful." 
Soon after good Mr. Henderson eased his mind in this 
way, little Will Murray, who, as I think, cannot be 
called good, came into Scotland, bringing letters : one of 
them, addressed to the Earl of Montrose, was of tenor as 
follows : — 

Montrose : 

I send W^ill Murray to Scotland to inform my friends of 
the state of my affairs, and to require both their advice 
and assistance. You are one whom I have found most 
faithful, and in whom I repose greatest trust : therefore 
I address him chiefly to you. You may credit him in 
what he shall say, both in relation to my business and 
your own; and you must be content with words until I 
be able to act. I will say no more, but that I am your 
loving friend, Charles R. 

This letter is dated 27th August, 1642, at Nottingham, 
where the royal standard had just then been raised ; for 
the quarrel in England had come to open war. 

Letters from the King, such as we have seen, and King*s 



A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 211 

messengers, whatever they may have said, failed in ex- 
citing Montrose to action at this time. As Scottish Earl, 
he was loath, I think, to raise war within his country's 
borders against her Church. At this time, indeed, he 
could not well act at all : not for the King under Ham- 
ilton, who was his Majesty's prime minister for Scottish 
affairs ; nor for his country, so long as Argyle was prime 
manager for the Covenanters. Hamilton was a double- 
dealer always. Sir Philip Warwick, who knew him per- 
sonally, and was not unfriendly to him, says : " I must 
concur in the general opinion that naturally he loved to 
gain his point rather by some serpentine winding than by 
a direct path ; " and, furthermore, " whether he brought 
water or oil was to most men doubtful." But Montrose, 
for one, had now no doubt : he, as we remember, began 
long ago to " look more narrow to his walking," and he 
held him now to be *' the prime fomenter of these misun- 
derstandings betwixt the King and his people." Argyle, 
for whom Montrose *' had always a great contempt," was 
not what we can properly call the head, or leader, of the 
Covenanters ; but he was their manager. No one need 
pretend he can understand this man ; looking at him with 
hope of seeing into him to any extent, is like trying to 
look into muddy water ; you cannot see an inch below the 
surface. We will call him a cross-eyed Presbyterian Jes- 
uit ; for there are Jesuits in all religious sects, or in most. 
When this man came, in his turn, to the scaffold and the 
axe, he made (they say) a decent exit, having no doubt of 
his own salvation. Baillie, a friend to the man, speaks of 
his cunning ways ; how, when commissioners were to be 
appointed to go to London, and certain men were desirous 
of the appointment, " Argyle, in his cunning way, got 
them on the committee of nominations," where they could 



212 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

not nominate themselves. The popular movement, called 
the cause of the Covenant, managed by this cunning man, 
had now got far beyond its original cause and intent, 
when '* men and women with one uplifted hand swore it." 
These men, Hamilton and Argyle, managers, one of them 
for the Covenanters, the other for the King, were at this 
time, as we have seen, on terms of intimacy with each 
other ; and Montrose, sorrowful and indignant, could find 
for himself as Scottish Earl no fair field of action for 
King or country. 

One looks into these Scottish troubles now, when two 
centuries lie between us and them, with never-ceasing 
wonder : it seems so plain to us how a real King, one 
faithful, fearless, commanding, could have dealt with this 
coil, and put an end to it, and given peace to Scotland 
instead of war. But let us bear in mind always, that we 
have the whole thing beneath us, and can therefore over- 
look it and judge it ; while Montrose, on the contrary, 
was in the thick of it, its issues all hidden from him, and 
had, for self-guidance through its perplexities, only his 
instincts as man and Scotchman. 

We, with our advantages of time and place, can see that 
Charles the First, who stood in the highest place in Scot- 
land by hereditary right, stood there by no other right : his 
word was not the word of a King. Mary Stuart, Queen of 
Scots, said : " The promises of Princes are no further to be 
urged upon them for performance than it stands to their 
conveniency ; " and from Mary downward the Stuarts held 
the same doctrine. Want of truthfulness is want of in- 
sight ; and these Stuarts were a doomed race — doomed to 
dishonor ; and Charles the First, not by any means the 
worst of them, was doomed to death on the scaffold for the 
sin of his race. He was not a bold, bad man ; he was only 



A COVENANTER STILL, BTTT CONSERTATIVE. 213 

a weak one, placed where the strongest would have had to 
gird himself to his task ; and we, reading of the coil he 
was in, have to pity him. If we pity this King now, 
how much more did Montrose pity, who knew little of 
him, but much of the bad Scotchmen who deceived and 
abused him ! and in the many months, from June, 1641, 
to February, 1643, the Earl was ill at ease in his retire- 
ment from active life. But we know little of him in 
his private life at any time ; and of this time of quiet we 
know nothing, or next to nothing. He was in the winter 
months of 1641-2 in Angus, where the weather was very 
stormy, and himself very unwell ; and in the next fall he 
was at his castle of Kincardine in Perthshire, writing 
there, in October, to a " Graham of Craigo " about aflfairs 
at Old Montrose which did not go right. This Graham, 
residing, I think, in the parish of Craig, on the south side 
of the entrance to the Montrose basin, was near to the 
old homestead, and could therefore conveniently attend to 
matters there. After this little act, we can hear of no 
other till the second month of the new year, when the 
Earl frightened our friend Baillie ; who, according to his 
wont, tells of it. Writing under date of February 18, 
1643, the candid but not impartial man says: "Our 
heart-burnings increase, and with them our dangers ; so 
much the more as Montrose, Ogilvy, and Aboyne, who 
this long while have been very quiet, are on a sudden to 
the King ; for what we cannot tell." Another writer 
says that Montrose, on his way, arriving at Newcastle, 
" receives news that the Queen, being newly arrived out 
of Holland, was landed at Burlington in Yorkshire. 
Thither he makes haste, and relates unto the Queen all 
things in order." But the Queen was not in good or- 
der for listening ; being, probably, all in a flutter. Land- 



214 JAMES GEAHAM, MAEQTJIS OF MONTEOSE. 

ing, a few days before, from a Dutch ship laden with 
munitions of war, which she had got by selling or pledging 
the crown jewels in Holland, she had hardly housed her- 
self at Brellington (now Burlington) before Vice-Admiral 
Batten, with ships of the Parliament sailing into the bay, 
cannonaded the town ; and balls came smashing through 
the roof that covered a Queen ; who, thereupon, fled in 
haste into the fields. According to the old historian Spal- 
ding, she went " in night waly-cot, bairfut and bair-leg, 
with her maidis of honour ; quhairof one throw plane feir 
went straight mad, being one nobleman of England's doch- 
ter : " but " by providence of the Almighty she escapes, 
and all her company, except the foresaid maid of honour, 
and goes to ane den which the cannon could not hurt ; and 
on bair fields she rested, instead of stately lodgings cled 
with curious tapestrie." Such are the horrors of war ; 
and the frightened Queen, not in a state to listen to good 
counsel, gave no decided answer to Montrose. Going for- 
ward with her to York, he found there Hamilton, who had 
just arrived from Scotland. The Queen gave audience to 
both of them ; but their reports of affairs in Scotland, and 
their counsels, being widely different, she referred the mat- 
ter to his Majesty, the King. At Oxford, whither they all 
went, his Majesty listened to both noblemen : half pleased 
with the bold counsels of Montrose, he yet, by long habit 
of weakly following the lead of Hamilton, yielded to him 
again ; and the serpentine windings continued. His 
Majesty, in whom was a doubt or two, raised this Marquis 
of Hamilton soon after to a Dukedom, by patent dated 
Oxford, April 12, 1643 ; thus making sure of his good 
services. 

Baillie, writing soon after this time, says : " Hamilton, 
Montrose, Angus, Montgomery, Ogilvy, and others, have 



A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 215 

returned from York, where we heard they were not well 
agreed. There was in hands among them a deputation 
for Scotland, whereby Hamilton should have been Lieu- 
tenant for the King, Callender his General, and Baillie his 
Lieutenant, and Montrose General of Horse : but that 
Montrose absolutely refused to join in any service with 
Hamilton, who, he avowed, had ever been, and would ever 
be, untrusty. These tales came out from both sides : " 
and they are probably true ; certainly true in part, for 
Montrose held Hamilton to be traitor to King and country. 
True in the whole, or not, they probably induced the Cov- 
enanters to make overtures to Montrose ; or to repeat 
offers made to him before. Baillie, writing at a time 
earlier than this, says : *' Argyle and our nobles, especially 
since Hamilton's falling off, would have been content for 
the country to have dispensed with that man's by-past 
misdemeanours : but private ends mislead many." Pri- 
vate ends mislead many ; and, among the many, the Earl 
of Montrose ; as Baillie did verily believe : but let us re- 
mark two things here : Baillie says " Argyle and our 
nobles," not Argyle and our other nobles : and he says 
also that Hamilton had fallen off from the Covenanters ; 
expressions which serve to show that the charges which 
Montrose made against these men — against Hamilton of 
being traitor, and against Argyle of aiming at dictator- 
ship in Scotland — were not without foundation. 

The offers made to Montrose by " Argyle and our 
nobles " at this time, which was late in the spring of 
1643, were, the post of Lieutenant-General under Leslie, 
*' and whatever else he could desire and they bestow : " 
but to these rather large offers he gave, it seems, no 
very positive answer ; which indicates that the Earl had 
learned the need of prudence. 



216 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

Rumors of these offers reached the King, probably; 
certainly they came to the Queen ; for she, in a letter to 
Montrose, dated May 31, evidently alludes to them in 
this sentence : "I have been given to understand that you 
have struck up an alliance with certain persons that might 
create an apprehension in my mind." In this letter, 
written, like all her other letters to Montrose, in her native 
French, the Queen speaks of his generosity, of her esteem 
for him, and of her trust in him ; and is altogether gra- 
cious. He however, instead of being in alliance with cer- 
tain persons among the Covenanters, was, at the date of 
that letter, on his way to the north of Scotland to form an 
alliance with friends of the King — the Marquis of Huntly 
and the Earls of Airlie and Marischal. But this attempt 
to organize a party for the King in the north came to 
nothing ; and Montrose returned to the south, where he 
met the Reverend Alexander Henderson ; who, as we re- 
member, was one of the three ministers who were his 
companions on a trip to Aberdeen some time ago, when 
the Covenant was young, and when Montrose added a clause 
to it, to reconcile loyalty to the Kirk to loyalty to the King 
— loyalties which had come more and more into conflict ; 
till at last he, the Earl of Montrose, had to make choice 
between them ; for service to both was no longer possible. 
" When the diet of the Convention drew near," says 
Bishop Guthrie, " they despatched Mr. Henderson to wait 
on the Earl of Montrose for solving of his doubts ; who, 
being advertised by Sir James Rollo of Mr. Henderson's 
coming the length of Stirling for that end, did meet him 
at Stirling bridge : they conferred together by the water- 
side for the space of two hours, and parted fairly, without 
any accommodation : " and Baillie says there was *' a 
conference between him [Montrose] and A. Henderson at 



A COVENANTER STILL, BUT CONSERVATIVE. 217 

Stirling : albeit the fruit of this conference is no ways so 
great as was expected. The man is said to be very 
double ; which in so proud a spirit is strange." A con- 
ference this, of which we would like to know more ; but 
the accounts of it are meagre. With Montrose came his 
friends Lord Napier, Lord Ogilvy, and Sir George Stir- 
ling of Keir ; and with Henderson there came Sir James 
Rollo, of whom we heard some time ago : he, the Knight 
of Duncruib, wedded the Lady Dorothea Graham ; who 
died, as we remember ; and thereupon he wedded the Lady 
Mary Campbell, sister to the Earl of Argyle. The man 
had therefore brothers-in-law who were somewhat unlike. 
It is said, that when the Covenanters proposed a conference 
to Montrose, he named Henderson as the man he would 
like to meet ; which is very probable. Alexander Hender- 
son was the ablest and best of the ministers of the Kirk ; 
a really able and honest man ; a man of threescore years, 
with long visage ; forehead high and full ; eyes deep-set, 
and hair and beard coarse ; the face all wrinkled, the 
skin of it drawn into deep folds. He had put on the 
harness of the Kirk in his youth, and had been at hard 
strain in it long ; he had grown into it, and could not put 
it off now if he would : but he had a large human heart in 
him, and in his conferences with King Charles, from one 
of which at Oxford he had just then returned, he had 
been moved to pity the weak but not ill-meaning King. 
Appointed to solve the doubts of Montrose, he had him- 
self, at this time, need of some solution of his own. Two 
hours, by the water-side, this wrinkled man stood in con- 
ference with the young and un wrinkled Earl of Montrose. 
Born into Presbyterianism, the Earl had grown up in it; 
always he would do it reasonable service, but he would 
never be its slave. The Presbyterian Church of Scotland 

19 



218 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MOISTROSE. 

was young compared with the Monarchy of Scotland; and 
in the death-struggle of the two, James Graham, Earl of 
Montrose, would respond to the call of his name and 
place. His House, like that of the Marquis of Huntly, 
had risen by the Kings of Scotland; and with them it 
should stand, or with them should fall. Wishart's account 
of this conference with Henderson is, that the main object 
of Montrose in it was to learn Avhat were the real purposes 
and projects of the Covenanters ; and that therefore, after 
he had heard the propositions of Henderson in regard to 
himself, he asked to be informed as to the future course of 
the Covenanters. Learning that the course would be on- 
ward, and that an army would be raised to assist " our 
brethren of England" in their struggle with the King, 
he thereupon asked what powers Henderson and Rollo 
had to treat with him ; and, finding that they did not agree 
as to the powers with which they had been clothed, he, 
without giving any positive answer to their propositions, 
put an end to the conference, and went, with his friends, 
to the house of Sir George Stirling of Keir. 

So, in the month of June, 1643, ended the connection 
of James, Earl of Montrose, with his covenanting country- 
men. He remained indeed some months longer in Scot- 
land ; but he was inactive, taking no part in public 
affairs — waiting there for the highest bidder, some have 
said, who had little knowledge of the man. On him, as on 
other men, considerations of the kind called worldly were 
not without effect ; but no such considerations could in- 
duce him to follow the lead of Archibald, Marquis of 
Argyle ; or of James, Duke of Hamilton. 



A BOYALIST GETTING UNDER WAY, 219 

CHAPTER V. 

A ROYALIST GETTING UNDER WAY. 

While Montrose was inactive there at his home, events 
of importance were taking place in Scotland. The Cov- 
enanters, or the leaders of them, had requested the King 
to call a Parliament ; and, on his refusal to do it, they 
summoned, in his name, a Convention of Estates to pro- 
vide for the maintenance of the public peace ; or ostensi- 
bly for that ; and such Convention had power to raise 
moneys and levy forces. 

In August of this year 1643, there came to Edinburgh 
the Earl of Rutland, Sir William Armyne, Sir Harry 
Vane, and others, Commissioners from the English Par- 
liament, for the purpose of combining forces against the 
King. Baillie says : " The English were for a Civil League ; 
we for a religious Covenant ; " marking, by that little sen- 
tence, a difference, which in the end was fruitful of 
trouble ; for the Scotch, in fact, were for the establishment 
of Presbyterianism throughout the realm, while the Eng- 
lish were not altogether for that. In these conferences 
and negotiations. Sir Harry Vane was very busy. " Sir 
Harry Vane, Sir Harry Vane, the Lord deliver me from Sir 
Harry Vane," said Oliver Cromwell in Old England ; and 
in New England they said, substantially, the same thing 
of him. Sir Harry was very busy at this time in Edin- 
burgh ; he and Mr. Henderson were busy ; and a Solemn 
League and Covenant was formed; rather vague in the 
Presbyterian part of it, but, on the whole, answering well 
enough the present purpose. After this instrument was 



220 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

signed by English non-conformists, it came back to Edin- 
burg ; and the Convention there, acting in concert with the 
General Assembly of the Kirk, decreed that all Scotchmen 
should sign and swear it, under penalty of confiscation of 
estates. Presbyterianism is to many the best of the isms, 
and no one need account it the worst ; but its doings, in 
these years, were not altogether lovely : it was in fact 
striving to make itself dominant over all other sects, and 
was ready to trample down all that stood in its way. 
Oliver Cromwell, as we remember, had, at last, to put his 
strong hand on it, and stay it, and keep it in its place ; 
where alone it could work beneficently. This Solemn 
League and Covenant with our brethren in England was 
one important event of the time ; and another, consequent 
indeed upon that, was the raising of an army to assist 
them in their struggle with the King. The Scotch troops 
were recalled from Ireland ; levies were made at home ; 
and with one hundred thousand pounds sterling received 
from the English Parliament there were means enough. 
While these events were in progress the King's prime 
minister for Scotland was very quiet. Baillie makes this 
report of him : " Hamilton is yet somewhat ambiguous ; 
suspected of all, loved of none ; but it is like he will be 
quiet : " and Hamilton's brother. Earl Lanerick, at this 
time King's Secretary of State for Scotland, put the privy 
seal to the proclamation for this army, which was soon to 
march. 

These events were certainly of great interest to the Earl 
of Montrose : indignant, and unable to remain longer in- 
active, he, in the autumn of 1643, posted away to the King 
with the news ; assuring his Majesty that Hamilton had 
now shown himself to be the traitor he had long ago be- 
lieved him to be. His Majesty, who had no insight, lis- 



A HOYLIST GETTING UNDER WAY. 221 

tened, doubtful ; for the serpentine windings were fasci- 
nating still. Soon, however, the truth became only too 
plain ; for the Earl of Leven got his army under way and 
came marching towards the Borders ; and the brothers, 
Hamilton and Lanerick, deceivers or deceived, came in 
haste to Oxford to tell what Sir Philip Warwick calls " a 
fair though lamentable tale." The King, waking a little 
now, ordered a Court of Inquiry ; and Scotch noblemen, 
Montrose, Kinnoul, Nithsdale, Aboyne, Ogilvy, gave their 
testimony in relation to affairs in Scotland, and the doings 
of these brothers there. The wondering and sorrowful 
King broke away at last from his favorite, and sent him 
prisoner to Pendennis Castle, where the serpentine man 
had time to consider his ways : after long pondering, the 
man doubted, I think, whether he had been traitor or not. 
The Earl of Lanerick, placed under arrest, escaped and fled 
to London, where he found a friend in our old acquaint- 
ance Baillie, who, at the time, was there with the Scotch 
Commissioners : the Reverend man, writing to his friend, 
had no suspicion that his careless words would outlive his 
studied sermons ; and therefore these words and other 
words of his are of value : " when he [Lanerick] comes 
to Scotland he will tell many tales : since he came here he 
has my chamber and bed." 

Hamilton being now discredited, the King could listen 
with acceptance to Montrose ; who proposed to keep the 
Scots out of England by making work for them at home. 
The plan of operations was this : the Marquis of Huntly, 
with his Gordons and other Royalists, to make head 
against the Covenanters in the north of Scotland ; the Earl 
of Antrim to raise troops in Ireland and land them on the 
west coast ; arms and ammunition to be got in Denmark, 
and landed at some convenient port in the north ; and 
19* 



222 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

Montrose, supplied with money and soldiers, with muni- 
tions of war, from the King's army in the north of Eng- 
land, was to march across the borders into Scotland. Rous- 
ing the Royalists on his way, he would join the Earl of 
Antrim's Irish, and with commission as Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor and Captain- General of Scotland, try what a man 
with ample means at command could do for the King 
there. Scottish nobles, Earls Hartfell, Nithsdale, Annan- 
dale, Morton, Roxburgh, Traquair, and others, loyal or 
professing loyalty, and some of them then present at Ox- 
ford, promised aid : if they and the King would make 
good their promises all would go well. At the suggestion 
of Montrose one change was made — a change in appear- 
ance only. These Scottish nobles had been long without a 
master ; much longer than was good for themselves or for 
their countrymen ; and we remember, that the Covenant- 
ers, some time ago, " were feared that emulation among 
our nobles might have done harm when they should be 
met in the field ; " and that Alexander Leslie, old, little, 
crooked, with humble ways, was of great use in prevent- 
ing it. Montrose, apprehensive of such emulation (if that 
is the right word) among loyal nobles, indeed seeing symp- 
toms of it, and knowing that he was himself wanting in 
some of Leslie's qualities, proposed a change. The King's 
nephew. Prince Maurice, therefore got the commission of 
Lieutenant-Governor and Captain-General ; and Montrose, 
instead of that, got one under the Prince, as Lieutenant- 
General ; which it was hoped would help the matter a 
little. In the month of March, 1644, this Lieutenant- 
General, with Lords Crawford, Nithsdale, Reay, Ogilvy, 
Aboyne, and some troops bound for the Marquis of New- 
castle's camp, set forward to gather an army in the north 
of England. On arrival at York, Montrose sent Colonel 



A ROYALIST GETTING UNDER WAY. 223 

Cochrane to the Marquis, then at Durham, to ask, accord- 
ing to the King's instructions, for men, money, arms, and 
ammunition. He got for answer that the Marquis had 
none of these things to spare : but this, he says, writing 
to Sir Robert Spottiswood, " shall be no matter of discour- 
agement to withhold us from doing our best." Going for- 
ward then himself to Durham, he, in a personal interview 
with Newcastle, urged his claims ; but with small result. 
The Scots, under old Leven, now quartered within five 
miles of the royal army, outnumbered it, and the Marquis 
needed all the force he had, and more. The King's Lieu- 
tenant-General for Scotland got, therefore, only " an escort 
of ill-conditioned and ill-appointed horse, with two small 
brass field-pieces." While these were getting under way 
there was some prospect of a battle. The Marquis, march- 
ing from Durham, " drew up at a place called Hilton, near 
Bowdenhill, on the north side of the Wear, two and a 
half miles from Sunderland ; " old Leven, with his Scots, 
being east of him, on a hill towards the sea. On Sunday, 
24th of March, there was cannonading and skirmishing; 
and again on Monday ; but it came to nothing more ; for 
Newcastle fell back in haste to his former quarters. Ma- 
jor John Erskine, called afterwards to " depone " before 
the Scotch Committee of Estates, said : " that the Earl of 
Montrose, Nithsdale, Aboyne, and Ogilvy, were at Bowden- 
hill ; and that he heard the said four lords allege that the 
Marquis of Newcastle and General King were slow ; and 
that, to his best knowledge, they were inciters and stir- 
rers up of the Marquis of Newcastle and General King 
to fight against the Scots army at Bowdenhill." 

Soon after this, Montrose, with his small troop of horse 
and some militia gathered in the north of England, crossed 
the borders and marched forward to Dumfries. There he 



224 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

received a message from friends at Stirling, inviting him 
to come and take possession of that city ; which, as the 
message said, would surrender at his summons ; and with 
it came " a well known token " from his niece, Margaret 
Napier, the wife of Sir George Stirling of Keir. But his 
English militia, now far enough from home, began to de- 
sert ; and the Earl of Callender, whom he had counted as 
a friend, was now, as he learned, gathering forces to oppose 
him ; while none from any quarter came to aid. Montrose, 
therefore, fell back, and crossed the borders to Carlisle ; 
while Callender, with troops of the Covenant, took posses- 
sion of Dumfries. 

Foiled in this his first attempt to enter Scotland, our 
Lieutenant-General was, nevertheless, according to his 
wont when in the field, active : there in the north of 
England with Leven's army of Scots south of him, and 
Callender's north, he, though obliged to be watchful, man- 
aged to do a stroke or two of work ; for the Earl of Cal- 
lender was rather slow to hinder. Sir William Armyne 
and other English Commissioners then at Sunderland, ap- 
prehensive of trouble, wrote to Callender under date of 
May 8, 1644: *' My Lord : we are still desirous to take 
all opportunities to acquaint you with the state of affairs 
in these parts. The Earl of Montrose, and the rest of 
those that lately made an inroad into Scotland, are now 
returned into these parts, with what forces they could get, 
or bring along with them ; and have joined themselves 
with Colonel Clavering's horse and the forces of [the town 
of] Newcastle ; with intent to fall upon Morpeth, where 
some well-affected gentlemen of Northumberland have 
gathered together some considerable force, with a purpose 
to raise more for the defence of themselves and the coun- 
try ; and we greatly apprehend they may be interrupted in 



A ROYALIST GETTING UNDER WAY. 225 

it" — as indeed they were very decidedly. Montrose, now 
Marquis by patent dated Oxford, May 6, did, within few 
days after date of the above letter, set out from New- 
castle, with a part of the garrison there added to his own 
troops, and, at daybreak the next morning, assaulted the 
Castle of Morpeth, in which there were five hundred men 
with artillery. 

Montrose, after a struggle of two hours, was repulsed 
with loss ; but when night came he threw up earth-works 
for cover all around it, and getting artillery from New- 
castle, he after some days brought it to capitulation. 
He then reduced a small fortress at the mouth of the 
Tyne ; and according to Baillie, did other work. He, 
writing from London in June, says : " The delay of Cal- 
lender's incoming so long, has given time to the Marquis 
of Montrose to make havoc of the northern counties, 
which will make the siege of Newcastle the harder ; " for 
indeed the Marquis got much corn, which the Scots needed, 
and sent it to the Royalists. Summoned from this work 
by Prince Rupert, who, in prospect of battle, needed all 
the strength he could get, Montrose hastened to join him ; 
but arrived too late ; meeting the Prince as he came from 
the battle-field of Marston Moor, where the headlong 
man, after partial victory, had got total defeat. One of 
the things that Lord Ogilvy, despatched afterwards by 
Montrose, should show to the King was this : " That till 
we were called away by the Prince [Rupert] by two per- 
emptory orders from off the Borders, Callender did not 
come in ; nor could he, so long as we stayed. And how, 
when we came to the Prince, his occasions forced him to 
make use of the forces we brought along with us, and 
would not suff'er him to supply us with others ; so that we 
were left altogether abandoned, and could not so much as 



226 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

find quartering for our own person in those counties." * 
In a letter to Sir Robert Spottiswood, dated Preston, 15th 
July, 1644, Montrose gives some brief account of other 
matters. " The Marquis of Huntly was once very strong ; 
as I am certainly informed about five thousand horse and 
foot ; but business was unhappily carried ; and they all 
disbanded as misfortunately as heretofore, without stroke 
stricken ; " and " Traquair is coying upon the borders ; 
but takes no notice of me, nor none of the King's party ; 
and, as I am certainly informed, has petitioned for his 
peace ; and his son [Lord Linton] has undertaken a regi- 
ment with the rebels." And furthermore, it appears that 
the Earls of Hartfell, Annandale, Morton, Roxburgh, Niths- 
dale, who promised so fair at Oxford, "have done all that in 
them lay to discountenance the service, and all who were 
engaged in it." No arms or ammunition had come, or 
were like to come, from Denmark ; nor had the Earl of 
Antrim landed yet any Irishmen on the west coast of 
Scotland ; and the King's Lieutenant-General, who com- 
plained when he was General for the Covenanters, that 
he could get nothing done of himself alone, had at this 
time, certainly, opportunity to try what he could do in that 
way ; for of help elsewhere there was none. 

After Montrose had been left destitute by Prince Rupert, 
he, with Lords Ogilvy and Aboyne and the few personal 
friends who adhered to them, retired to Carlisle. After 
much consideration of ways and means, the attempt to 
enter Scotland was abandoned as hopeless ; and, joining 
themselves to a troop of Royalists under Lieutenant-Colo- 
nel Huddlestone, they marched south, about the 12th of 
August, bound for Oxford. On the 2d day of the march 

* See " Montrose's instructiona to Ogilvy " in Memorials of Montro8e» 
vol. ii. 145. 



A ROYALIST GETTING UNDER WAY. 227 

Montrose quietly disappeared from the troop ; leaving with 
Ogilvy, to whom alone he confided his purpose, written 
instructions about certain matters to be represented to his 
Majesty. Ogilvy and Huddlestone were attacked, defeated, 
and made prisoners, near the River Ribble, in Lancashire, 
by a party of Parliament-men ; and the said instructions, 
containing information of use to the Covenanters then, and 
to us now, came into the hands of Lord Fairfax, who sent 
them to the Scotch General Leven. We have already 
given an extract from these instructions, and we must 
weave in a few sentences from them here to show how 
matters stood with Montrose, and what his prospects were 
at this time. Ogilvy should show his Majesty that if any 
part of the promises made at Oxford had been fulfilled 
*' we could easily have done the business ; " indeed, that 
if we had not been deceived by false information at Dum- 
fries, we could have done much without the promised aid. 
Furthermore, Ogilvy should inform his Majesty that the 
course we have taken now, " though very desperate for 
ourselves," is the best that remains to us for his service ; 
and he should then hint to his Majesty that *' if the con- 
veniency of his affairs could suffer it," " a very little sup- 
ply of force " would be of great use to us ; but therein, my 
Lord Ogilvy, " you are to carry yourself according as you 
shall find the condition of affairs when you come there and 
press it less or more." His Majesty should then " be so- 
licited particularly for Prince Maurice's repair to Scotland," 
" and all means " should " be used to that effect." Fi- 
nally, my Lord Ogilvy, *' whatever shall befall, your Lord- 
ship is to make all possible haste and dispatch, and stay 
for nothing ; but be sure within a month, or five weeks at 
furthest, to fall in to Scotland, with what force, less or 
more, you can; direct two or three confidential persons 



228 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

before you, severally, lest some be intercepted, that may 
give us notice how all has gone and what we have to ex- 
pect, that we may put ourselves in some frame to be all 
aloft at once, against your return. Montrose." 

These "instructions," a kind of memoranda written on 
three separate pieces of paper, never came to the ear of 
King Charles ; which, considering the " conveniency of 
his affairs," did not matter much to the writer of them ; 
but it was a very serious matter to him that the bearer of 
them, Lord Ogilvy, a faithful friend, with other loyal no- 
bles, the Earl of Crawford, Lord Reay, Lord Maxwell, 
were placed in the tolbooth of Edinburgh, and kept there 
long. Among the men taken prisoners with Lord Ogilvy let 
us note one other — a Harry or Henry Graham — because 
he was brother to the Marquis of Montrose ; a brother of 
the kind called natural; he seems to have been much 
attached to the Marquis, and we shall find these brothers 
by and by in the same boat, going into exile together. 



CHAPTER VI. 

A ROYALIST VICTORIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 

His Majesty's Lieutenant- General for Scotland, who dis- 
appeared in the north of England after he gave those in- 
structions to Ogilvy, entered then on a course " very 
desperate " for himself indeed, but the only one that re- 
mained for him in his Majesty's service. Two other men 
disappeared at the same time — Colonel Sibbald and Major 
RoUo, or Rollock, as some spell it. This Major, lame of 
one leg, had been " Captain of General King's life-guard 



A ROYALIST VICTORIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 229 

of horse," and his brother, Rollo of Duncruib, wedded the 
Lady Dorothea Graham. Colonel Sibbald is the same man 
who, as Covenanter, was placed by Montrose in charge of 
the " bonnie House of Airlie," before Argyle " slighted" 
it. These men, Sibbald and Rollo, mounted and ac- 
coutred like old Leven's troopers, were, soon after the 
middle of August, in Cumberland, riding towards the bor- 
ders : a solitary Scotchman, walking on a road there, took 
little notice of these troopers as they passed him, but was 
startled at sight of their groom, who followed riding a 
sorry nag, and leading a better ; he thought he had seen 
that rider before. The Scotchman was right ; he saw a 
gentleman in the disguise of a groom — a rather remark- 
able sight in a world where we see too often only the re- 
verse of that. In fact this man, pretending to be a groom, 
was the Marquis of Montrose, and the Scotchman recog- 
nized him by his *' singular grace in riding." These troop- 
ers, with their groom, after entering Scotland, kept along, 
I suppose, on the eastern side of the Highlands, till they 
arrived, on the 24th of August, at " the house of TuUie- 
belton, near the Tay, between Perth and Dunkeld." This 
house belonged to Patrick Graham of Inchbrakie ; who, 
if we remember aright, was one of the curators, or guar- 
dians, of Montrose long ago. Sending his companions, 
Sibbald and Rollo, to notify Lord Napier and other friends 
of his whereabout, and to get information about matters 
and things of interest to him, Montrose awaited their re- 
turn ; at night in the hills, or in the wood of Methven, 
sleeping as hunters sleep ; and by day concealed in a small 
cottage near the house of TuUiebelton. 

The report of these messengers, who returned soon, was 
not encouraging ; for the cause of the King was at low 
ebb then. The Committee of Estates visited all who 

20 



230 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

dared to speak or move for him with fines and imprison- 
ment ; and the Kirk censured and excommunicated them. 
Indeed the King himself, guided by Hamilton, had re- 
warded and encouraged his enemies, and paralyzed his 
friends ; till Scotland, though professing loyalty still, had 
no kindly word for its futile King ; and no hand for him, 
save the bold one of James Graham, Marquis of Mon- 
trose ; whose desperate adventure had at this time not a 
very cheerful look in it. Patrick Gordon of Ruthven tells 
a story ; how, when the Marquis was in the woods of 
Methven, he " became transported with sadness, grief, and 
pity," seeing no help any where on earth : but " while he 
was in this thought, lifting up his eyes he beholds a man 
coming the way of St. Johnstone's (Perth) with a fiery 
cross in his hand. Hastily stepping towards him, he in- 
quired what the matter meant. The messenger told him 
that Coll Mac Gillespeck — for so was Alexander Macdon- 
ald called by the Highlanders — was entered Athole with a 
great army of the Irish, and threatened to burn the whole 
country if they did not rise with him against the Covenant ; 
and he [the messenger] was sent to advertize St. John- 
stone, that all the country might be raised to resist him." 
This is probably true in part ; for Alexander, or Allester, 
Macdonald was indeed coming from the west with his 
Scotto-Irish ; and a letter from him addressed to Montrose 
came to Patrick Graham at Tulliebelton ; he, probably, 
having been named to Allester as a means of communi- 
cation. An answer was sent appointing a rendezvous at 
Blair in Athole ; and the royal Lieutenant-General met 
the Irish there before the end of August. 

This Blair of Athole is the fittest place in Scotland for 
a central point of operations of the kind that Montrose, 
with his small means, had then in view. The castle there, 



A KOYALIST VICTORIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 231 

belonging to the Earls of Athole, was then seven stories 
high, with turrets, and stood on a high level space en- 
closed on three sides by watercourses. South of this 
castle the River Garry flows along eastward ; west of it 
the Bruar comes rushing down from the mountains, and 
east of it the Tilt ; both of them flowing southward into 
the Garry. North of the castle lies the great forest of 
Athole, on the southern slopes of the Grampian range ; 
and over this range is a pass, or pathway, along by the 
Tilt, into the forests of Mar and Badenoch, which lie north 
of its summits. This Blair- Athole is strong for defence ; 
and in case of need, places for retreat are near. Robert- 
sons and Stewarts, with Grahams intermingled, were near 
it southerly ; they, and the Atholmen generally, were loy- 
al, or rather they were unfriendly to Argyle ; which, at 
that time, to a great extent, was the meaning of loyalty in 
the Highlands. The Campbells, for many generations en- 
croaching on other clans, were crowding eastward on 
Athole ; and, as we remember, Argyle, not long before 
this time, had seized the Earl of Athole at the Ford of 
Lyon and sent him prisoner to Edinburgh. This castle 
of Blair- Athole therefore, with its strong natural defences, 
and loyal men of Athole, unfriendly to Argyle, all around 
it, was, certainly, the fittest place in Scotland as a central 
point of operations for Montrose ; but when he met the 
Irish at that place, or near it, there was, I suppose, dis- 
appointment on both sides. They expected to see the 
royal Lieutenant at the head of an army : they now saw 
the Lieutenant indeed ; but instead of army only one man 
with him, Patrick Graham younger of Inchbrakie ; a very 
dark-complexioned man, known in the country round about 
as Black Pate ; and Montrose, on his part, saw, instead 
of the thousands promised by the Earl of Antrim, only 



232 JAMES GKAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

hundreds, about twelve. But at their head was a rather 
remarkable man, Avith a very remarkable name — Allester 
Mac Coll Keitache, Mac Gillespeck, Macdonald ; who was 
the son of a man with the same name, minus the Allester 
and the Mac before the Coll ; Mac meaning son of. 
These Macdonalds were formerly of Colonsay, on the west- 
ern coast of Scotland ; and they, father and son, indeed 
all the family with its followers, had been expelled from 
their ancient possessions by Argyle ; whether rightfully or 
not, I cannot say. They fled to Ireland, and were there, 
as we are told by Carte in his Life of Ormonde, very busy 
in the confused fights of parties in that distracted country. 
This Allester had now come to Scotland as leader of these 
poor Irish, Scotto-Irish, and hoped, no doubt, while strik- 
ing for the King, to get, also, a stroke at Argyle. But 
Argyle, it appears, first got stroke at him ; for when Alles- 
ter, arriving from Ireland, landed his ragamuffins at Ard- 
namurchan point, on the west coast, a party of Campbells, 
who had been on the lookout for him, burned his ships, 
leaving him no means of escape. Allester took possession 
of some castles near the coast, put garrisons into them, 
and then marched inland ; arriving, as we know, in Athole 
towards the close of August, 1645 ; though we know little 
of the way he came, or of what he did on the way. Ru- 
mors of this inroad of foreigners preceding their march, 
the Atholmen gathered to defend their own homes and 
lands ; but when the King's Lieutenant appeared and 
raised the royal standard, they at once joined him ; doing 
it the more readily because this Lieutenant was the Chief 
of the Grahams, and well known in that region. 

Now, having means at command, the question with 
Montrose was : What to do first ? — a question that did 
not delay him long. The plan of operations, laid down at 



A ROYALIST YICTORIOUS TOE, A TWELVEMONTH. 233 

Oxford some time before, had become known to the Cov- 
enanters ; and in July they had heard of the landing of 
Irish at Ardnamurchan : the Committee of Estates, there- 
fore, had been at work organizing for defence. Levies of 
men had been made north of the Grampians, and south of 
them, in his own wide domains, Argyle had raised his High- 
landers ; and, with cavalry from the Lowlands under the 
Earl of Lothian, was ready for action. The Committee 
knew too, that Montrose had disappeared, about the middle 
of August, from the north of England ; and it had learned 
from his instructions to Ogilvy, which came into old 
Leven's hands, that he was at this time on a course " very 
desperate " for himself. All Covenanters were, therefore, 
in these latter days of August, 1644, awake and astir, 
expecting work. The royal Lieutenant, having now 
choice of opponents, chose the nearest : with his Irish and 
Atholmen, marching from Blair-Athole southerly, he 
crossed the River Tay on the 30th of August, and came 
down through the country of the clan Menzie, on the east 
side of Loch Tay, into Glen Almond. The Menzies, vas- 
sals of Argyle, summoned to join the King's standard, 
refused, and harassed the Royalists in the march ; who, 
thereupon, set fire to cornfields and did other mischief. 
In Glen Almond a body of men appeared drawn up on a 
hill ; men who had come out, like the Atholmen, to op- 
pose the Irish invaders; and, like them too, they now, 
after some parley, joined Montrose ; for, indeed, friends to 
him were at their head; Lord Kilpont, son of Graham 
Earl of Monteith, Sir John Drummond, and a Drummond, 
Master of Maderty, wedded to Beatrix Graham. We 
remember this lady as the bairn Beatrix, riding from Kin- 
cardine to Mugdok : but time brings change. The bairn 
had become wedded wife, and brother James, then a care- 

20* 



234 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

less school boy, had now a wild host around him, and 
cares enough : but the call of manhood, as of boyhood, is 
to do the work meet for it, and the Graham would at no 
time be wanting. Taking counsel with his kinsman, 
Lord Kilpont, learning from him about the army at Perth, 
Montrose, leading now about three thousand men, changed 
his line of march towards the enemy, and encamped, at 
night of the last day of August, on the moor of Fowlis. 
Next morning the Royalists got under way early ; and 
came, about seven o'clock, in sight of the Covenanters 
drawn up on the plains of Tippermuir, west of Perth, and 
about three miles from it. Montrose then sent the Master 
of Maderty to the commander of the Covenanters with a 
message that he bore the King's commission ; had come to 
reestablish the King's government in Scotland ; and would 
like to do it without bloodshed if he could. After the 
messenger had gone, or at some other time that morning, 
Montrose stepped aside to the house of Mr. Alexander 
Balneaves, the minister of Tippermuir, asked for a cup of 
cold water, and got it from the minister's own hand. Mr. 
Balneaves, who had given many a cup of cold water be- 
fore, and forgotten it, did not forget this one. Having 
had his cup of water, and arranged his line of battle, the 
royal Lieutenant awaited the answer to his message. But 
Maderty did not return Avith his flag of truce ; and could 
not indeed, having been seized and sent to a prison in 
Perth. And now the battle was ordered. The Covenant- 
ers, about eight thousand of them, with their backs to 
the morning sun, presented a wide front, with cavalry on 
each wing, and in the centre nine pieces of artillery. 
Lord Elcho on the right commanded the whole ; and Sir 
James Scott, his best officer, who had served abroad, held 
the left. The Earl of Tullibardine commanded the centre, 



A KOYALIST VICTORIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 235 

and Lord Drummond led the cavalry : a rather imposing 
array compared with their opponents, who were in number 
about three thousand — Irishmen, Atholmen, and others, 
without horse or cannon. According to the Rev. John 
Robinson, a minister of Perth, they were *' naked, 
weaponless, ammunitionless, cannonless men ; " according 
to Baillie, " a pack of naked runagates ; not three horse 
among them ; few with either swords or muskets : " the 
whole of them, such as they were, drawn up in a line only 
three deep, making as much extent of front as was pos- 
sible. " And that day," says another reporter, " the Mar- 
quis of Montrose went on foot himself, with his target and 
pike ; the Lord Kilpont, commanding the bowmen, and 
our General-Major of the Irish forces [Allester Macdonald] 
commanding his three regiments ; " Allester being in the 
centre, Kilpont on the left, and Montrose, with the Athol- 
men, on the right. The action began by the advance of 
Lord Drummond's cavalry. Thereupon Kilpont's bowmen 
shot their arrows ; the weaponless men, snatching stones 
from the field where there were plenty, hurled them 
through the air, making danger visible to horse and rider. 
When the cavalry fled, Montrose let loose his " runagates." 
Of battle there was none, or next to none ; for the Cov- 
enanters hardly waited for the furious onset: but "the 
chase continued from eight in the morning till nine at 
night : " " cannon, arms, munitions, colors, drums, tents, 
baggage," — all fell to the victors ; and, of the fugitives, 
two thousand or more were slain. 

Depositions, taken before the Committee of Estates, 
give an account of the doings in Perth after the fight.^' 
Montrose came into the city that night, with three hun- 

* See Memorials of Montrose, vol. ii. pp. 152-165. 



236 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

dred men, and put guards at all the gates ; taking lodgings 
himself in Margaret Donaldson's house, where he had been 
often before. Many Grahams came into Perth to see their 
chief in his day of victory ; among them came Graham of 
Braco, and Graham of Ochil, with Master William Forrett 
and two young Grahams, John and James, who had been 
sent for. Master Forrett, who was formerly tutor of the 
father at Glasgow, was now tutor of his sons, and " peda- 
gog " still. Master Forrett made himself useful, it appears, 
to the Marquis, w^ho liked, always, to have some old trust- 
worthy friend near him. The Provost of Perth depones : 
" that Mr. Williame Forrett, as having commission from 
the Erie, commandit the Magistrats to pay fiftie pounds 
sterling for AUester McDonald's use ; and that the Magis- 
trats got ordours to delyver the money to Mr. Williame 
Forrett ; and that Mr. Williame desyrit the Magistrats to 
delyver the same to Margareat Donaldsoun, and that he 
would ressave the same from hir. Conforme whereunto 
the Magistrats did delyver the money to the said Margareat 
Donaldsoun ; and that Margareat Donaldsoun assured the 
deponer that Mr. Williame had gotten the money from 
hir ; " and I hope that Allester himself did finally get 
hold of it. We note also, with some interest, that Mon- 
trose " forced sum of the inhabitants of the toun to give 
them great quantities of cloth to the number of four thou- 
sand merks worth ; " having a mind to clothe his naked 
men, and make them decent if he could. In these deposi- 
tions there is evidence of no other than humane conduct 
on the part of the Marquis, and of little other on the part 
of his followers ; and one is rather struck with the fact, 
that, having had command of these wild men for a few 
days only, he could restrain them so, and keep good order 
in the conquered city. One of these deponers was the 



A ROYALIST YICTORIOIIS FOK A TWELVEMONTH. 237 

Provost of Perth ; and another the sheriff's clerk, — Cov- 
enanters both ; and they, speaking before the Committee 
of Estates, would conceal no fact injurious to the victor, 
when such fact would be most welcome of all. This 
sheriff's clerk, however, was, as he says, " put in fear of 
his life." " The deponer wes forced for fear of his lyfe 
(being broght be David Graham of Gorthie, and three 
hilanders with him, to the Erie of Montroiss) to wreat 
ane generall protectioune for the inhabitants of the toun 
of Perth and lands about the same ; whairinto the said 
Erie Montroiss caused design himself ' Marquess of Mon- 
troiss, Livetennent-Generall of the King's armies in Scot- 
land,' and did subscryve the same." So this clerk, being 
driven thereto by fear of his life, wrote a protection for his 
fellow-citizens ; and other Covenanters did little better. 
The Reverend George Halyburton, it appears, said grace at 
the Marquis's dinner table, and was afterwards called to 
account by the Presbytery, and " sharply censured for his 
conversing with Montrose during his being in Perth ; also 
for eating and drinking with him, and saying of grace to 
his dinner, he being an excommunicated person ; and for 
receiving of passes from him." Mr. George said in ex- 
cuse: " that he was surprized on a sudden, and that he was 
urged thereto ; " and was " heartily sorry that he should 
have given so great offence." The Presbytery, in consid- 
eration of the man's blameless walk in other respects, did 
nothing more than sharply censure him ; but the Commis- 
sion of the Kirk at Edinburgh deposed him from the 
ministry. These deponers and others, standing before 
Presbyteries and Committees, were really in fear of pun- 
ishment, and were therefore very guarded in speech ; in 
fact many of them lied more or less. The better pleased, 
therefore, are we with truth-telling, plain-spokeu Mr. Bal- 



238 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

neaves, who gave a cup of water to one who was athirst 
on the morning of the fight at Tippermuir. Called before 
the Presbj'tery and reproved, he told his brethren, that 
not one of them, if present there " about the time of the 
battle, durst have refused" to do any thing the Marquis 
had commanded, even if it had been the meanest and most 
debasing thing that could be imagined. 

Many men went into Margaret Donaldson's house to 
speak with the Marquis of Montrose ; and, among others, 
Andrew Reid M^ent in with the magistrates. I mention 
Andrew specially, not because he was one of the richest 
men in Perth, but because he was one of the boldest. 
Some years after this, " when Charles 2nd was crowned at 
Scone, Andrew Reid advanced, toward defraying the ex- 
penses of the coronation, forty thousand merks, for which 
the King gave bond. After Oliver Cromwell had taken 
possession of Perth, Andrew Reid presented to him the 
King's bond, and craved payment. Cromwell replied : 
' I am neither heir nor executor to Charles Stuart.' Mr. 
Reid presently answered, ' Then you are a vicious intro- 
mitter.' Cromwell, turning to one of his officers, said 
such a bold speech had never been made to him before." 
Bold, indeed ! a vicious intromitter being one who, with- 
out authority, assumes the management of property be- 
longing to another, and so becomes liable for his debts. 
Surely Andrew deserves remembrance in history better 
than many who get it.* 

The Marquis, unwilling to vex the citizens of Perth, 
and finding it difficult, I think, to keep his troops from 
plunder, marched out on Wednesday, 4th of September, 
and encamped near the Kirk of CoUace, seven miles north- 

* See Memoirs of the Marquis of Montrose, by 3Iark Napier, vol. ii. 
p. 437, note. 



A EOYALIST, VICTORIOUS FOB A TWELVEMONTH. 239 

east of the city, and remained there three days, organizing 
his army, I suppose, distributing arms and ammunition, 
and doing such other things as were needful. On Friday, 
at " break of day, before the reveillez, there Avas a great 
tumult in the camp ; the soldiers ran to their arms and 
fell to be wild and raging. Montrose, guessing that it was 
some falling out between the Highlanders and the Irish, 
thrust himself in among the thickest of them ; there he 
finds a most horrible murder newly committed, for the 
noble Lord Kilpont lay there basely slain." Slain by 
Stewart of Ardvoirlich ; hired to do it, and also to kill 
Montrose, by the Covenanters, says Wishart ; which is 
improbable. According to other, more credible accounts, 
Stewart had a quarrel with Allester Macdonald ; and Kil- 
pont, in some way interfering to put an end to it, Stewart, 
in sudden passion, stabbed him. The Covenanters, how- 
ever, did harbor and reward the man ; he fled to Argyle, 
who gave him a military command, and got for him, from 
the Parliament, not only " exoneration" for the deed, but 
approval of it. Lord Kilpont, according to Wishart a 
very accomplished man, was not only of kin to Montrose, 
but " his dear friend," too, and he embraced *' the breath- 
less body again and again, with sighs and tears ; " but he 
had work to do, and was soon up and doing. 

At Aberdeen, where the northern levies had gathered, 
there was at this time an army under Lord Burleigh ; and 
Argyle was on his way from the west to Perth, and known 
to be strong in horse, of which Montrose had none. He, 
therefore, preferred a stroke at Lord Burleigh ; and, on 
the 7th of September, marched onward north-easterly, 
along the fertile Carse of Gowrie, the Sidlaw Hills on his 
left hand, and the Frith of Tay on his right. Encamping 
at night near the Law of Dundee, he next morning sum- 



240 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

moned that city to surrender : getting a positive negative, 
and unwilling to lose time in assault, he continued his 
march northerly to Forfar, and thence to Brechin. Gra- 
ham of Braco, who, as we remember, came into Perth with 
Master Forrett and two of Montrose's sons, and, as it 
appears, came on with the army so far as Brechin, now 
departed, taking with him one of the boys, and going, 
probably, to Kinnaird Castle, or to Old Montrose ; which 
are within six miles of Brechin. Graham of Braco, in his 
deposition before the Committee, says : "I came off from 
the Earl [Montrose] without good night ; " wishing the 
Committee to infer that he was not very polite to the rel)el 
Earl, as they all call him in these depositions, the Com- 
mittee not being disposed to recognize the King's Marquis. 
The eldest son, John, continued with the army, where he 
would be safer than he could have been elsewhere in Scot- 
land at that time ; and Master William Forrett continued, 
too, for a time, till the marches became too long for him. 

On the way from Perth to Aberdeen Montrose had been 
joined by the Ogilvies and their retainers, some twenty of 
them, all mounted ; with their chief, the old Earl of Air- 
lie, and his two sons. Sir Thomas and Sir David Ogilvy, 
at their head ; gentlemen all of them, or the most of them ; 
and therefore, according to Oliver Cromwell, better in a 
fight than common troopers. Colonel Nathaniel Gordon 
came in, too, with thirty horsemen from the north ; and so, 
with the nine field pieces, and other implements of war, 
got at Tippermuir, the army was better appointed now 
than then, — better appointed and better drilled, but smaller 
in number, — for many of the Highlanders after battle 
went with the spoils of it to their homes in the hills. 
With this little army, not over two thousand in all, Mon- 
trose moved northward through his native Forfarshire, into 



A KOYALIST, VICTOKIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 241 

Kincardineshire, and onward towards the city of Aberdeen ; 
but he avoided the bridge of Dee, remembering his battle 
for it some time ago, when he led the blue bonnets. Cross- 
ing the Dee, therefore, some fifteen miles higher up, at 
Crathes, he led his men down on the northern side of it 
towards another battle-field. Ripening harvest-fields along 
that river's banks fell scant to the reaper ; not merely be- 
cause armed men trampled them down, but because they 
gathered the grain ; each man of them placing a rip of oats 
on his bonnet ; their leader himself doing the like, for he 
still had his " whimsies." 

On Thursday, 12th of September, this army, with a rip 
of oats for its badge, halted within two miles of the city ; 
and its General sent in a letter addressed " to the Provost. 
Baillies, Council, and Burgh of Aberdeen : " — 

Being here for the maintenance of Religion and Lib- 
erty, and his Majesty's just authority and service, these are 
in his Majesty's name to require you, that, immediately upon 
the sight thereof, you render and give up your town in the 
behalf of his Majesty: otherwise that all old persons, 
women and children, do come out and retire themselves, 
and that those who stay expect no quarter. I am, as you 

fmayl deserve. ,-^ 

*- •'-' Montrose. 

To this letter the Provost and Baillies returned a rather 
long, but respectful, answer ; bearing in mind, I suppose, 
that its writer had been kind to them formerly when he 
came as Covenanter ; but they asked to be excused in 
regard to giving up the town ; and subscribed themselves, 
*' Your Lordship's as ye love us." The flag of truce, 
however, was fired on by some soldiers as it came out of 
town, and the drummer, who accompanied it, killed. 
21 



242 JAMES GEAHAM, MARQUIS OF MOXTROSE. 

Whereupon, says the old Scottish historian Spalding, 
Montrose " grew mad, and became furious and impatient ; " 
or, in more correct speech, he was angry, as he had good 
cause to be ; and forthwith he ordered his soldiers for 
battle. The Irish, under their leader AUester Macdonald, 
had the centre ; Colonel Nathaniel Gordon had command 
on the right ; and Sir William Rollo (lame of one leg) 
on the left. The nine pieces of artillery were ready for 
work somewhere ; the cavalry, what there was of it, di- 
vided itself, a part on either wing ; and to help out the 
deficiency of it, fleet footmen, bowmen or musketeers, 
were interspersed with the horse. The Covenanters, un- 
der Lord Burleigh, three thousand foot and six hundred 
horse, or thereabout, came out ; and the armies met near 
the town, " between the crabstane and the Justice-Milns." 
There was then firing of cannon on both sides ; snatching 
at ** cottages and garden walls, lying between the com- 
batants ; " struggle for a height on the left wing of the 
Royalists ; charges of cavalry, the Royalists changing their 
small squads from wing to wing as there was need : finally, 
there was, as at Tippermuir, a furious charge of Irish and 
Highlanders, which ended the fight. The victors stormed 
into Aberdeen, and were for a time unmerciful, doubtless, 
as Spalding says they were ; but for brief time only. On 
the 14th of September, next day after the battle, Montrose 
drew his troops out of town to Kintore, ten miles up the 
Don ; and wrote thence to his Majesty a letter, not now 
to be found any where, but carried to Oxford, certainly, 
by Sir William Rollo. 

" For my Lord Marquis of Argyle," says the Reverend 
John Robertson of Perth, "we knew not if he were come 
from the Highlands or not ; and so it proved ; for the first 
friends we saw was on the eleventh day after the dismal 



A EOYAXIST VICTORIOUS FOE A TWELYEMONTH. 243 

fight," at Tippermuir. And Baillie says : " Argyle, after 
he had learned the way whither the miscreants had run, 
followed, as armed men might ; which was four or five 
days behind them." Certainly he followed slowly, arriv- 
ing at Aberdeen four days after the Royalists left it ; he 
published there a Proclamation, by the Committee of Es- 
tates, dated Edinburgh, 12th of September, setting forth 
that " James, Earl of Montrose, having casten ofi" all feare 
of God," '* hes now joyned himself with ane Band of Irish 
Rebels and Masse-Priests," and is seeking to establish 
*' Poperie," and " threatening all such as refuse the same 
with present death and unheard-of cruelties :" "And the 
Committee do hereby declare, in the name of this King- 
dom, that whoever will take and apprehend the said Earl 
of Montrose and exhibit him alive before the Parliament, 
or their Committee ; or, if he shall happen to be slain in 
the taking, shall exhibit his head, that every such person 
shall not only be pardoned for their bygone concurrence in 
this rebellion, and all other crimes formerly committed by 
them, not being treasonable, bot, also, they shall have the 
summe of twenty thousand pounds Scot, delivered to them 
in present and ready payment." Such were the terms of 
war which the Covenanters proposed to the King's Lieu- 
tenant ; who, on his part, made proclamation and Declara- 
tion. His Declaration made public, or intended to be 
made public, is to this eff'ect ; that he was in arms for the 
defence and maintenance of the Protestant Religion; his 
Majesty's just authority ; the Laws and Privileges of Par- 
liaments ; the peace and freedom of the oppressed and 
thralled subjects. He says further: "Knew I not per- 
fectly his Majesty's intention to be such and so real as is 
already exprest, I should never at all have embarked my- 
self in this service : " and he adds, that, if he should see 



244 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

the least appearance of his Majesty's change from such in- 
tentions, he would no longer continue in his Majesty's ser- 
vice. All of which is true to a much greater extent than 
is common in public Declarations. 

Montrose, unable to cope with the army now approach- 
ing, which numbered about three thousand foot and half as 
many horse, marched westward along the Don to Kildrum- 
mie, Castle. Halting there, he remained a while, awaiting 
the return of Colonel Nathaniel Gordon, M^hom he had 
sent to Huntly's Castles, Strathbogie, and the Bog of 
Gight, to rouse the clan Gordon, and call them to his 
standard. But the Gordons, at this time under the influ- 
ence of Argyle, would not move for the King ; indeed two 
of Huntly's sons, Lord George Gordon and Lord Lewis, were 
in Argyle' s army ; and Colonel Gordon's report on his re- 
turn was discouraging. Thereupon, the royal Lieuten- 
ant, burying his cannon in a morass, and divesting his lit- 
tle army of all hinderances to rapid motion, started on that 
career of marches to and fro which filled all Scotland with 
wonder and terror. Baillie, in his letters, says: "You 
heard what followed [the battle of Aberdeen] ; -of that 
strange coursing thrice round about from Spey to Athole, 
wherein Argyle's and Lothian's soldiers were tired out ; 
the country harassed by both [parties], and no less by 
friends than foes, did nothing for its own defence ; " and 
this strange coursing we are now briefly to indicate. 

From Kildi'ummie the royal liieutenant continued his 
course westward to the Castle of Rothiemurchus, on the 
eastern banks of the Spey, intending to cross there ; but 
the Grants, Frazers, and others, men of Moray, in arms on 
the opposite side of the river, had seized all the boats. 
Turning northward, therefore, he marched along its course 
into the forest of Abernethy, and within twenty miles of 



A EOYALIST VICTOKIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 245 

the Bog of Gight, (now Gordon Castle,) which stands near 
the sea at the mouths of the Spey. At this castle Argyle 
was then reviewing his forces — too many in number for 
Montrose to attack. He, therefore, returned up the Spey 
to Rothiemurchus ; and thence, southerly, he went into 
Badenoch, where he fell sick. *' For certain days he was 
very sick," says Wishart ; who says, furthermore : " He 
recovered in a short space ; and, as if he had risen from 
the dead, he frightened his enemies much more than he 
had done before." When on his feet again, he led his 
Irish across the Grampian range, and came down (through 
Glen Tilt I suppose) to Blair- Athole ; halting there on the 
4th of October. Since he left that place, on the last of 
August, the days number thirty-five ; and in that short 
time he had done a good spell of work. Baillie thought 
the case desperate for him now. Speculating on the prob- 
abilities, he said: " Montrose, with two thousand to three 
thousand of most desperate and cruel villians, came back 
on the hills so far as Athole ; whether he was to break 
down into Argyle[shire], and so on fisher-boats to fly to 
Ireland, or to keep the hills till he came to Campsie, and 
then fall on Glasgow, and then break through to England, 
as most do fear, we do not yet hear." Our friend Baillie 
was at the time in London, where he, doubtless, received 
from friends at home frightful accounts of Montrose and 
his " Irish rebels, and Masse-Priests," at war with our 
Kirk. He adds : "If we get not the life of these worms 
chirted out before they creep out of our land, the reproach 
will stick on us forever." They did not fly to Ireland on 
fisher-boats, nor break through to England ; and when the 
life was at last chirted out of them, Baillie' s brethren 
were not without reproach for their manner of doing it. 
At Blair- Athole Montrose rested a while ; but not in 
21* 



246 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

idleness. The prisoners, brought along from Aberdeen, 
were lodged in the castle ; in which a garrison was placed 
under command of John Robertson of Inver. Arrange- 
ments were made to collect and store provisions there for 
the -use of the army ; and AUester Macdonald, with a de- 
tachment of Irish, was sent to relieve the garrisons he had 
placed in the castles of Mingarry and Langhaline in Ardna- 
murchin when he landed there ; and also to recruit for the 
royal Lieutenant. 

But Argyle was slowly following on the track of the 
Royalists, and, as soon as Montrose had completed his 
arrangements at Blair- Athole he again set his army in mO' 
tion. Coming down eastward through the famous pass of 
Killiecrankie, where the Garry, high hills piled on each 
side of it, frets along its dark and rocky channel, he led 
his travel-soiled Irish into the Lowlands, while the army 
in pursuit was, with its masses of cavalry, entangled in 
the Grampians. West of Perth he turned north-eastward 
again, and held his way along the level lands ; but near 
the hills I guess, till, on the l7th of October, he came to 
the Dee, and crossed it at the Mills of Drum, a dozen 
miles, or so, from Aberdeen. Changing his course then to 
the north-west, he came soon to the house of Grant of 
Monymusk, and had the pleasure, a rare one to him in 
those days, of dining with a lady. Spalding says: " Mon- 
trose upon Saturday, the 19th of October, dined in Mony- 
musk with the lady, the laird being absent ; and, upon 
fair conditions, he spared him at this time " — meaning 
that he spared the lands of the laird. According to Spal- 
ding, the leader of the Irish did not spare all lands in his 
way ; but that he was much more merciful in this respect 
than Argyle, leader of Scots, is shown beyond doubt. 
Continuing his march, north-westward, over rising ground, 



A KOYALIST VICTORIOUS TOR A TWELVEMONTH. 247 

he came, the day after leaving Monymusk, to the region 
where rivers run northward to the sea ; and going down 
the valley of the Bogie, he came, on the 21st of October, 
to Castle Huntly, or, as it was then called. Castle Strathbo- 
gie, about forty miles north-west of Aberdeen. 

Meanwhile, Argyle, following on, came over the Grampi- 
ans into Athole, soon after the Royalists left it ; and, 
keeping still on their track, he arrived at Aberdeen on the 
24th of October. Joined there by fourteen troops of horse 
•under the Earl Mareschal, he marched, on the next day, to 
Kintore and Inverary, and on northward to Strathbogie, 
where he came near getting stroke on Montrose, without 
notice, who had become too careless of lagging pursuers, I 
suppose. Short of ammunition, and cut off from the High- 
lands by an army strong in horse, Montrose, by rapid 
march eastward, got into the heights around Fyvie Castle, 
and stood at bay there. Twice, on two successive days, 
Argyle, with greatly superior force, stormed up the hills, 
and had to come down again. Montrose, by bold dash 
into Argyle's ranks, got powder ; from the castle he got 
pewter vessels, and from its roof lead for balls ; and in 
every way did his utmost. On the third day the Cove- 
nanters, finding the business hopeless, retired across the 
River Ythan ; and the Royalists, on the last day of Octo- 
ber, marched, unmolested, back to their former quarters at 
Strathbogie. Argyle then tried other means to get ad- 
vantage of his active opponent, offering free passes and 
protections to all who would leave the royal standard; 
and, Montrose proposing another march along by the Spey 
into Athole, some of his Cavaliers, not inclined to do that 
thing again, left him. Lord Duplin, — afterwards Earl of 
Kinnoul, — Sir John Hay of Dalgatty, Sir John Drum- 
mond, Colonel Sibbald, and others, went their ways. Colo- 



248 JAMES GKAHAM, MARQUIS OF MOIS^TEOSE. 

nel Nathaniel Gordon went too ; but with the purpose, 
probably, of doing Montrose good service among the Gor- 
dons. The Ogilvies, Sir Thomas and Sir David, and their 
father, the old Earl of Airlie, remained ; they were friends 
to the King surely ; but more surely still they were en- 
emies to Argyle, who burned their " bonnie house of Air- 
lie " — the first act of that kind in this civil war. 

Montrose had now for companions to himself few or 
none, except these Ogilvies, and one other Cavalier, the 
Lord Graham, who, aged fourteen, was under care of 
Master William Forrett : with these he started from Strath- 
bogie on the 6th of November, and led his Irish, or Scotto- 
Irish, to the Spey again, and then southward and upward 
along its eastern banks. But Argyle no longer followed, 
having had enough of such marching before : the country 
there, difficult for an army always, is doubly so in winter, 
which was then approaching. The Covenanters, therefore, 
turned back through the Lowlands ; intending, I suppose, 
to protect that part of the country by heading the enemy, 
if he attempted to come down out of Athole. With this 
purpose, Argyle, when he came into Perthshire, posted his 
footmen at Dunkeld, at the entrance to the Highlands, 
half way between the city of Perth and Blair- Athole ; 
while the horse, under the Earl of Lothian, went into 
quarters at Perth, or near it. Montrose, learning of this 
position of his opponents, came, by forced marches, across 
the Grampians towards Dunkeld, hoping to strike a blow 
there ; but Argyle did not wait for it : flying with his 
army in haste to the Lowlands, he and Lothian went to 
Edinburgh soon after and laid down their commissions, 
being inclined to rest a little after fruitless labors. " You 
heard," said Baillie, " of that strange coursing, thrice round 
about from Spey to Athol, whereby Argyle's and Lothian's 
soldiers were tired out." 



A KOYALIST VICTOKIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 249 

At Blair-Athole, Allester Macdonald came in from the 
west with his recruits ; among them five hundred of the 
Clan-Ranald, a branch of the Macdonalds, under their 
Captain, John of Moidart. Red-shanks, from many quar- 
ters, came in to Montrose ; from Glengarry, Glennevis, 
Glencoe ; from Braemar, in the north-east, came the Far- 
quharsons ; from Appin, in the south-west, on the shores 
of Loch Linnhe, came the Stewarts ; wild men, from many 
quarters, came to fight for the King, and not the less will- 
ingly that Argyle and his Campbells were fighting against 
him. Taylor, the water-poet, describes these wild High- 
landers : " In former times were those people which were 
called Red-Shanks. Their habite is shooes with but one 
sole a-piece : stockings (which they call short hose) made 
of warme stuff'e of divers colours, which they call tartane. 
As for breeches, many of them, nor their forefathers, never 
wore any, but a jerkin of the same stufi'e that their hose is 
of; their garters being bands or wreathes of hay or straw, 
with a plaid about their shoulders, which is a mantle of 
divers colours, much finer, or lighter, stuff'e than their hose, 
with blue flat caps on their heads ; a handkercheife knit 
with two knots about their necke ; and thus are they at- 
tyred." ^' The naked truth is, that these Red-shanks were 
bare from the thighs downward to the knee, or below it, 
and the legs, by constant exposure, were very red. " Their 
weapons appear to have been the large sword, the battle- 
axe, the spear, the bow and arrow, and the dirk." A 
French writer says of these wild men, " lis se disent Chre- 
tiens^ mats toute leur religion est fort tenebreuse, et Us ne 
craignent ni Dieii ni Diable : " which is in part true, and I 
rather like them, and hold them to be a refreshing variety 

* Quoted in the Highlands of Scotland, by William F. Skene. London, 
1837. 



250 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

of human kind. There are right good things among them ; 
for instance, subordination without degradation ; the mean- 
est clansmen, meeting his chief, can clasp hands with him, 
though the chief, on cause shown, can cleave skulls with- 
out sanction of judge or jury. 

Montrose, having given his Irish some days of rest, and 
marshalled his host at Blair-Athole, the question at a 
council of war was : What to do next ? He himself 
proposed, according to Wishart, a descent to the Low- 
land ; but the clansmen were all eager for a foray into the 
territories of Argyle : AUester Macdonald was eager for 
it ; the Ogilvies were eager ; nor was Montrose, as I can 
well believe, himself unwilling ; for such move would be a 
politic one. A hundred years, and more, the Earls of Ar- 
gyle had been at work getting ascendency in the High- 
lands, and extending their possessions ; doing the work 
fairly and unfairly.* The Macdonalds, once Lords of the 
Isles, and holding large possessions on the main land, had, 
after long struggle, been obliged to yield Isla and the pen- 
insula of Kintire ; and that clan, once strongest and proud- 
est of all, had dwindled to a secondary one. The Mac- 
leans of Dowart, and others of that name, dwellers on the 
main and in the Isles, had been despoiled and dispossessed 
by the Campbells. The smaller clans, too, many of them, 
had been forced into vassalage to Argyle, giving him bonds 
of manrent, or service. A stroke at Argyle, therefore, if 
successful, would free many from this bondage to him, and 
bring them to the standard of his opponent. All, there- 
fore, then gathered together at Blair-Athole, were eager 
for this foray into the home of the Campbells ; and Mon- 
trose drew out his many-colored host for the march over 

* History of the Western Higlilands jina Isles of Scotlaud, by Donaia 
Gregory. Edinburgh, 1836. 



A KOYALIST VICTORIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 251 

snow-covered mountains into the far south-west. Little 
time was needed for preparation ; of baggage there was 
none, or next to none ; and of tents none ; for the High- 
lander, wrapping himself in his long plaid, sleeps on the 
ground without other covering ; only the naked legs, may- 
be, look a little cold to one not used to the sight. The 
way into Argyleshire is difficult to find ; or was, two hun- 
dred years ago ; and difficult when found ; but a guide 
was at hand in Angus Mac Ailen Duibh, a native of Glen- 
coe, who said he knew it all in and out ; and proved him- 
self as good as his word. All things being ready, the word " 
then was, March ! When the army came to Loch Tay, 
Master William Forrett took leave of his friend the Mar- 
quis, and of the Marquis's son, the young Lord Graham : 
Master Forrett had marched enough. Deponing after- 
wards before the Committee of Estates, he told how he 
had followed the " Erie of Montrose round about on the 
first tour, and round about on the second tour," till he 
came to Loch Tay; "where," he says, "I left the said 
Erie of Montrose, and the Irish rebels, upon the eleventh 
day of December last." Master W^illiam was then only 
about forty ; not too old for marching ; but he was a " ped- 
agog," brought up to that business, and he was probably 
not strong in the legs. Thanking him for the dat!fe he 
gives, we will hope that he never again had a pupil on 
the march. 

On the eastern side of Loch Tay the Menzies, allies of 
the Campbells, had their huts and herds ; and on them 
the vengeful Macdonalds began their sad work, wasting as 
they went ; but with other prey before them they tarried 
not long for this. Onward, into Argyleshire in the south- 
west, the wild host hastened to the homes of the Camp- 
bells. The month was December, and the way, difficult 



252 JAMES GRAHAM, MAHQUIS OF MONTKOSE. 

at its best, was now at its worst ; for the tramp was through 
untrodden snows ; but Angus Mac Ailen Duibh knew the 
passes. A wild march surely : in single files long drawn 
out, by the rough shores of lakes, through glens and deep 
ravines, up the steep hill- sides, along the edge of giddy 
precipices, now hidden, now emerging, I see them on 
their winding way, — a winding way and a perilous ; for a 
few hundred determined men, well placed in these mountain 
passes, had been fatal to the invaders ; but such men were 
not there. The Campbells' old boast, '' 'Tis a far cry to 
Lochow," had made them careless of invasion ; and Argyle 
himself, then at his Castle of Inverary, did not dream of 
danger, till shepherds from the hills with news that Mon- 
trose was there, roused him to flight : well for him, then, 
that Loch Fine was near, and a boat at hand. The invad- 
ers, divided into three bands, traversed the lands of Ar- 
gyle, and there was wild waste by fire and sword ; wild 
■work and cruel ; but there was wild justice in it too. For 
a hundred years, and more, the Campbells had fomented 
disturbances among the clans, and incited them to quar- 
rels ; stepping in themselves always at the right moment, 
and reaping advantage ; till they had become dominant in 
the Highlands — dominant, and feared, and hated; and 
now-the day of retribution had come. From the middle 
of December to the latter days of January this work went 
on ; and then Montrose, learning that Argyle had gath- 
ered force and was marching to waylay the invaders on 
their exit from Argyleshire, called his men together and 
marched northward : but of this matter we will give his 
own account. " After I had laid waste the whole country 
of Argyle, and brought off provisions for my army of what 
could be found, I received information that Argyle had 
got together a considerable army, made up chiefly of his 



A ROYALIST VICTORIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 253 

own clan, and vassals and tenants, with others of the reb- 
els that had joined him, and that he was at Inverlochy, 
where he expected the Earl of Seaforth, and the sept of 
the Frazers, to come up to him with all the forces they 
could get together. Upon this intelligence I departed out 
of Argyleshire, and marched through Lorn, Glencoe, and 
Aber, (Lochaber,) till I came to Loch-Ness ; my design 
being to fall upon Argyle before Seaforth and the Frazers 
could join him. My march was through inaccessible 
mountains, where I could have no guides but cow-herds, 
and they scarce acquainted with a place but six miles from 
their own habitations." ^' Angus Mac Ailen Duibh, know- 
ing the way in and out of Argyleshire, and at home in the 
*' dark Glencoe," shut in on each side by steep mountains 
of rock, did not know Lochaber, it seems. At Kilcum- 
min, near the southerly end of Loch Ness, where Fort Au- 
gustus now stands, Montrose had placed his little army 
between Seaforth and Argyle, so as to prevent their junc- 
tion ; and, after a day or two of rest, was ready for action 
again. 

In this time of rest we will take a look at his oppo- 
nents, who were many. When Argyle, after his flight 
from Dunkeld in the early days of December, resigned his 
commission, he was offered one as commander-in-chief of 
the home armies; he refused it, and was not, I think, 
much urged to accept it. The Earl of Lothian also re- 
fused it, and the Earl of Callender ; and the Covenanters 
were in great straits for a commander-in-chief to serve 
against the royal Lieutenant. Fortunately for them, 
Lieutenant-General Baillie, second in command of the 
army in England under old Leven, was, at the time, home 



* Letter of Montrose to the King. — See Memoirs of Montrose. 
22 



254 JAMES GKAHAM, MAEQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

to Scotland on business of his own. He, " William Bail- 
lie of Letham, a natural son of Sir William Baillie of 
Lamington," had served abroad under the Great Gustav, 
and had shown himself to be a good soldier at home, in 
the battle of Marston Moor, and in the siege of Newcastle. 
Him, therefore, the Committee of Estates seized on and 
made commander-in-chief, though he was unwilling. His 
own statement is : "I was pressed, or rather forced, by 
the persuasion of some friends, to give obedience to the 
Estates, and undertake the command of the country's 
forces, for pursuing its enemies." ^ This commander-in- 
chief, with an army composed in part of troops recalled 
from England, " was commanded" by the Committee " to 
march with the infantry towards Argyleshire, whither the 
rebels had gone ; " but on arrival at Roseneath in the be- 
ginning of January, the Marquis of Argyle, who was there 
with his Campbells, learned that the rebels " were marched 
to Lorn and Lochaber." Baillie therefore, leaving with 
"my Lord Marquis 16 companies of foot, 1100 men" "to 
join with his own in those parts," returned with the re- 
mainder of his army to Perth, to guard the entrance to the 
Lowlands there. At Roseneath, a peninsula on the east 
side of Loch Long, which lies between Dumbartonshire 
and Argyleshire, Argyle gathered his clansmen who had 
fled from the invaders ; and he marched them, as we have 
seen, to Inverlochy on the shores of Loch Eil. An army 
of Mackenzies, Frazers, and others, had gathered at In- 
verness in the north, under the Earl of Seaforth ; and at 
Aberdeen, in the north-east, there was a strong garrison. 
General-in-chief Baillie, with his army, was posted at 
Perth, midway between the north of Scotland and the 

* See his Vindication, published in Robert Baillie's Letters and Journals. 



A ROYALIST VICTOKIOUS FOR A TWELYEMONTH. 255 

south, where he could bar the entrance to the Lowlands 
through Athole, and move northward, or south, as need 
might be. In view of this array of opponents, Montrose, 
with his fifteen hundred Irish and Highlanders, had work 
to do, and was ready for it. From the southerly end of 
Loch Ness, where he had encamped, to the encampment 
of Argyle at Loch Eil, the distance is thirty miles, and 
the way straight and plain ; running through the great vale 
of Albin, along that remarkable chain of lakes and water- 
courses where now runs the Caledonian Canal. If the 
royal Lieutenant marched by this route, however, Argyle 
would learn of his approach, and could await his coming 
or not, as he might choose ; but Argyle should have no 
such choice. Placing guards, therefore, on this route, to 
prevent communication of his movement, Montrose, at early 
morn on Friday, January 31, 1645, led his army along the 
course of a little stream called the Tarf upward south-east- 
erly into Lochaber, one of the most dreary, mountainous, 
and barren districts in Scotland. This leader, not inclined 
to talk of difficulties, says : " The difficultest march of all 
w^as over the Lochaber mountains, which we at last sur- 
mounted, and came upon the back of the enemy when 
they least expected us, having cut off some scouts we met 
about four miles from Inverlochy." 

Friday, at morn, they started from the shores of Loch 
Ness and after tramping forty miles and more through 
this wild, rough, hilly region, all covered with snow, 
they, winding round the northern skirts of Ben Nevis, 
(highest Ben in Scotland,) came out, late on Saturday, in 
view of Loch Eil. " Our van," says the leader of it, 
" came within view " of the enemy " about 5 o'clock in 
the afternoon, and we made a halt till our rear was got up, 
which could not be done till 8 at night. The rebels took 



256 JAMES GKAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

the alarm, and stood to their arms, as well as we, all night, 
which was moonlight, and very clear." But surely after 
such a march, and in view of the morrow's work, ive man- 
aged, somehow, to snatch a nap or two of sleep. But the 
wakeful saw a pretty sight, I think. Before them lay 
Loch Eil, long and narrow, stretching away, one part west- 
erly and the other southerly, in shape like a human arm 
half bent ; at the elbow of it, outside, stood the Castle of 
Inverlochy, massive, square, with its four round towers, 
one at each corner ; and near the castle, along the shores 
of the loch, were the watch-fires of the Campbells. The 
ground all around was ragged, broken, with snow in the 
hollows of it : overhead all was bright, save where east- 
ward the giant Ben Nevis, holding his granite masses aloft, 
shut out the sky. 

" There were some few skirmishes between the rebels" 
(rebels to King Charles) " and us all the night, with no 
loss on our side but one man. By break of day I ordered 
my men to be ready to fall on upon the first signal ; and I 
understand since, by the prisoners, the rebels did the 
same." But before the fight there was, according to Pat- 
rick Gordon, an attempt at breakfast. " The General 
himself, and the Earl of Airlie," *' these two noblemen, I 
say, had no more to break their fast, before they went to 
battle, but a little meal mixed with cold water ; which, 
out of a hollow dish, they did pick up with their knives 
for want of spoons ; and this was these noblemen's best 
fare. One may judge what wants the rest of the army 
must suffer." With scanty breakfast, and small prospect 
of dinner except by victory, this little army, fifteen hun- 
dred in number only, was in fighting mood ; and " a little 
after the sun was up both armies met, and the rebels fought 
for some time with great bravery ; the prime of the Camp- 



A EOYALIST VICTORIOUS TOR A TWELVEMONTH. 257 

bells giving the first onset, as men that deserved to fight 
in a better cause. Our men, having a nobler cause, did 
wonders, and came immediately to push of pike and dint 
of sword, after their first firing. The rebels could not 
stand it, but, after some resistance at first, began to run ; 
whom we pursued for nine miles together, making a great 
slaughter ; which I would have hindered, if possible." 
The shores of the Loch were strewn with the slain, — fif- 
teen hundred of them : while of the Royalists only four 
were killed, and a hundred wounded, of whom one — Sir 
Thomas Ogilvy, son of the Earl of Airlie — died four 
days after the battle. " I have saved and taken prisoners 
several" gentlemen of "the name of Campbell," "that 
have acknowledged to me their fault, and lay all the blame 
on their chief. Some gentlemen of the Lowlands, that 
had behaved themselves bravely in the battle, when they 
saw all lost, fled into the old castle, and, upon their sur- 
render, I treated them honorably, and have taken their 
parole never to bear arms against your Majesty." 

Argyle's army was in this battle commanded by Sir 
Duncan Campbell of Auchinbreck, who had served in Ire- 
land : he and forty other gentlemen of that name were 
slain ; but Argyle himself escaped ; he indeed made sure 
of escape, placing himself in a barge on the Loch before 
the battle ; seeing the issue of it, he set sail and fled. 

Of all the victories of Montrose, this one was probably 
the most satisfactory to him ; and his letter to King 
Charles, from which we have quoted largely, concludes 
thus : " Give me leave, after I have reduced this country 
to obedience to your Majesty, and conquered from Dan to 
Beersheba, to say to your Majesty then, as David's Gen- 
eral did to his master, ' Come thou thyself, lest this country 
he called by my name J " 

22* 



258 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

This letter is dated Inverlochy, February 3, 1645; and 
Montrose soon after marched northward to Inverness in 
search of the army under the Earl of Seaforth, which, on 
news from Inverlochy, scattered and was not to be found. 
On the 19th of February the Royalists entered Elgin in 
Morayshire, near the northern seashore ; and " Seaforth 
and the rest of the committee-men fled their own ways." 
Elgin, with its Cathedral or " Muckle Kirk ;" its Tolbooth, 
" biggit wt stanes frae ye kirk-yard dyke, and sclaited wt 
stanes frae Dolass ; " its " Order Pot," or ordeal pot, 
where witches, or the " Devil's bairns," sinking or swim- 
ming, came to death ; its " Thunder House," where the 
Sutherlands dwelt ; and its long Main Street, the houses 
in it with " high-crowned roofs overlaid with heavy slabs 
of priestly gray," and with open piazzas in front ; Elgin, 
with these things in it and more, was a famous old city 
then ; and there the royal Lieutenant tarried a while, and 
issued his proclamation calling all true subjects, " betwixt 
sixty and sixteen, to repair to our army;" and all "dis- 
obedient persons " shall fare hard. The Marquis of Hunt- 
ly's eldest son George, Lord Gordon, and his youngest. 
Lord Lewis Gordon, came in here to Montrose ; and 
Colonel Nathaniel Gordon came in again ; and the Earl of 
Seaforth himself came in. The royal Lieutenant, well 
pleased with his new allies, the Gordons, went with them, 
by invitation, to their castle of the Bog of Gight ; " Boga- 
geith, the Marquis of Huntly's palace," " with lofty and 
majestic towers and turrets, all built of stone, facing the 
sea." This castle in a bog, the entrance to it over a cause- 
way, stands near the Spey, on its eastern side. That river, 
long fretting through a rocky channel, comes here to 
ground that is soft, and runs wanton in it, splitting itself 
into three, and so goes forward to the sea. Here in this 



A KOYALIST VICTORIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 259 

castle the young Lord Graham fell sick ; or, falling sick 
before, he grew worse there. The boy had marched far, 
and had become well acquainted with the Highlands. He 
and his brother came to their father at Perth, in Septem- 
ber, after the battle of Tippermuir ; and when Graham of 
Braco left the Marquis at Brechin " without good night," 
taking with him brother James, this one, John, the eldest, 
remained with his father under care of his tutor. Master 
William Forrett. He continued with his father, and saw 
soon the battle of Aberdeen ; he followed on in " that 
strange coursing" round about to the Spey, and thence 
through the forests of Badenoch and Mar, over the Gram- 
pians, Garhh-bein or rugged mountains, into Athole. He 
followed the flying army round about again, and saw it 
stand at bay on the hills at Fyvie. He came again 
through forests and over mountains to Blair-Athole, where 
he saw the Red-shanks come in from the west, led by 
Allester Macdonald, the left-handed. The boy, parting 
from his " pedagog " at Loch Tay, marched on with the 
army to its winter foray in Argyleshire, and found the 
Avay a hard one, even if he had a Highland pony under 
him ; but '* the difficultest march of all was over the Loch- 
aber Mountains," where, however, he got fresh milk from 
the cow-herds, I hope. The boy slept, sometimes, in 
Highland huts made of turf, on beds of the same ; and he 
slept on turf without a hut over him, but with white- 
capped hills standing around, and overhead a roof with 
perfect arch, all studded with stars. Waking at dawn of 
day, he watched the stars fade out, and saw the white tops 
redden when the morning sun smote them. He slept 
at night of Saturday, February 1st, Avay-worn and weary, 
between Loch Eil and Ben Nevis ; and when the Sabbath 
sun rose he saw the fight of Inverlochy, and heard the 



260 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

wild cries of Highlanders in their death-dash. He marched 
on with the victors to the north, where he fell sick ; and 
early in March, 1645, at this castle of the Gordons, he 
died. They laid him down at the neighboring Kirk of 
Bellie, to rise no more at tap of drum. 

The father had brief time for mourning, — which is best 
always, — and moving forward with his army, he came, on 
the 9th of the same month, into the neighborhood of 
Aberdeen. General Sir John Hurry, commanding the 
horse under Baillie, was at the time reconnoitring there- 
about ; and he, learning that a party of Cavaliers was in 
Aberdeen, dashed in at the head of one hundred and fifty 
dragoons, and killed one of them — Donald Farquharson 
of Braemar; but the others, Colonel Nathaniel Gordon 
among them, escaped. Hurry, returning south after this, 
seized, at Old Montrose or near it, James, second son of the 
Marquis, and sent him with his tutor to imprisonment in Ed- 
inburgh Castle : this boy, who by the death of his brother 
had become heir of Montrose, was a prize worth taking. 

The Royalists, marching now southerly along the coast, 
came, on the 21st of March, to Dunnotter Castle, and sum- 
moned it to surrender. Receiving from its master, the 
Earl Mareschal, only insult in reply to his summons, Mon- 
trose set fire on the lands of Dunnotter, and to the burgh 
of Stonehaven with its shipping. The Royalists, moving 
southerly still, were towards the end of the month at Fet- 
tercairn, within seven miles of Brechin, where Sir John 
Hurry, with eight hundred horse, had his quarters ; while 
General Baillie, with three thousand foot, was in the vi- 
cinity. Montrose, inferior in numbers to his opponents, 
and especially inferior in horse, having only three hundred, 
chiefly Gordons, manoeuvred skilfully, waiting for a chance. 
The two armies, manoeuvring and moving slowly south- 



A KOTALIST VICTORIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 261 

ward, came at last opposite each other, separated only by 
the little River Isla. The royal Lieutenant, who evi- 
dently respected his able opponent, had all along been 
cautious ; but now, probably liking the ground there, he 
sent a challenge of battle, offering Baillie a choice of 
either side of the river for it, on condition that the army 
crossing should not be disturbed in the process. Baillie 
answered, " I will fight at my own time and place, and ask 
no leave of you ; " and soon after he came near doing it. 
For some days the mancEuvring, marching and counter- 
marching, continued around the Isla; Montrose avoiding 
battle in open field, where horse could come into action, 
but watching for an opportunity to strike ; at last, de- 
ceived by false reports as to the movements of his oppo- 
nents, he made a dash at the city of Dundee, on the Frith 
of Tay. Sending the least efficient part of his army, with 
the baggage and camp followers, to Brechin, he, with an 
active part, — seven hundred foot and two hundred horse, 
— made a rapid night march south-easterly, and came to 
Dundee before day dawned. One John Gordon, called 
afterwards to speak, said, "that when he was lying with 
the rest of Lord Gordon's regiment about Dundee, Mon- 
trose came to him, he [the said John] being half sleeping, 
and said, ' John, you must go in with this paper (which 
was folded) to the magistrates of Dundee ; ' and with 
boastings [threatenings] forced him to do the same ; " and 
he said furthermore, " that the magistrates promised to 
give him an answer ; and before they could get one writ- 
ten Montrose set upon the town." " Whereupon," he, 
the said John, " was committed to the tolbooth," and be- 
ing afterwards brought before the Committee, he deponed 
as above. The royal Lieutenant, a prompt, decisive kind 
of man, waited, as he thought, long enough for an answer 



262 JAMES GEAHAM, MAKQXTIS OF MONTROSE. 

to his summons, and then went to his work of storming 
the city. He himself, knowing there was need of watch- 
fulness, took post on the Law of Dundee, (a round hill 
near the city,) while Lord Gordon and Major-General 
AUester Macdonald led their men to the assault. After 
brief struggle the city was taken ; but while Lord Gordon 
was arranging with the magistrates a formal surrender, and 
the storming party busy at pillage, news came to Montrose 
that Baillie and Hurry, in full force, w^ere marching on 
Dundee. Then there was riding in haste, and every one 
in command had work to do ; for soldiers at pillage, some 
of them with a drop too much of drink, do not fall readily 
into ranks. By great exertions they were got into order 
and under way in time ; but barely in time, for the enemy 
was close upon them. Montrose, with his two hundred 
horse, musketeers, the swiftest and soberest intermingled 
with them, covered the rear ; and, mindful of what he had 
left at Brechin, he ordered the march, not westward 
toward the hills, but north-easterly along the coast. Sir 
John Hurry, with his eight hundred dragoons, hung close 
on the rear ; and, doubtless, did what he could to hinder 
the march ; but was rather cautious, I suppose, for it was 
dark night soon after the retreat began, and if the General 
before him should conceal a part of his men by the road- 
side, there would be danger. While Hurry's horse, press- 
ing on the rear, hindered the march of the Royalists, or 
did what they could to hinder it, the foot, led by General 
Baillie, marched on their left flank a little inland, so as to 
cut off and intercept a retreat to the hills ; and this Gen- 
eral hoped, when daylight came, to get an easy victory : 
but the night was long, and the man before him awake 
through it all. Late at night, Montrose halted on the 
coast, near Arbroath, and sent off there a horseman, or 



A ROYALIST VICTORIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 263 

fleet footman, to rouse his troop at Brechin and appoint a 
rendezvous. Then, waking his men from brief slumber, — 
waking them with difficulty, I think, for this was the sec- 
ond night of marching, — he turned them away from the 
coast towards the north-west. Passing Baillie's front, un- 
der cover still of night, he led his tired troops to the South 
Esk, crossing it at dawn of day ; and he had then his way 
open, through Glen Esk, to the hills. Learning then that 
his forces, left at Brechin, had already passed westward, 
he hastened on after them, the dragoons of the Covenant- 
ers again on his rear. At last he got into the fastnesses 
of the Grampians with little loss ; indeed, with none that 
we know of, except that of the hat, cloak, and gloves, 
of Allester MacColl Keitache Macdonald. Donald Mac 
Grcgor, deponing at Edinburgh, said he " was taken by 
the rebels when his master was slain at Inverlochy, and 
has ever been with them since, being kept by Major-Gen- 
eral Macdonald as his footman ; " and that he was taken 
(by the Covenanters) " after the burning of Dundee, about 
six miles therefrom, being carrying his master's hat, cloak, 
and a pair of gloves." 

Safe among the hills, Montrose set himself to gather 
strength again : Lord Gordon, with his horse, went north 
to raise his clansmen ; Allester Macdonald, with a regi- 
ment of Irish, was sent to recruit in the west ; and Patrick 
Graham, Black Pate, to call the men of Athole. The 
Marquis, having with him now less than six hundred men, 
marched rapidly to and fro in the Highlands, as was his 
wont always when his fluctuating army was reduced to 
small numbers. Aimless coursings apparently, but not 
without a purpose ; and even an unmilitary eye may see 
that this General was an able tactician. By such cours- 
ings he made his little band active and hardy ; he showed 



264 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

that the King's cause had one spark of real life in it; 
he gained time to recruit ; and he obliged the Covenanters 
to divide their forces into parts, in order to guard the 
Lowlands at many points ; so that he, when again in force, 
could strike somewhere, with hope of victory. The 
Covenanters now, uncertain where the next outbreak 
would be, sent Sir John Hurry, with twelve hundred foot 
and one hundred and sixty horse, to the northern counties 
to join the Earls of Seaforth and Sutherland, and their 
levies ; while General Baillie, with his forces, remained in 
Perthshire. 

About the middle of April, Montrose, crossing the 
Grampians, was at the village of Crieff, in Strathearn, 
within twenty miles of Perth ; where Baillie, making a 
night march, tried to cut him off from the hills ; but the 
royal Lieutenant, with skill and daring, retreated west- 
ward, striking at intervals and beating back the foremost 
of his foes ; till, passing Loch Earn, he got into the braes 
of Balquhidder and was safe. Thence, moving southward, 
he passed along by the shores of Loch Katrine to Loch 
Ard, where he was joined by Viscount Aboyne and a few 
horsemen who had escaped from the town of Carlisle. 
The reader remembers Aboyne, second son of the Marquis 
of Huntly, who had "Traitor Gun" for military adviser 
once when he defended the bridge of Dee against the 
Covenanter Montrose. Aboyne was with the royal Lieu- 
tenant in his first attempt to enter Scotland ; and, when 
on the retreat, at the time his leader took the disguise of 
a groom and started on a "very desperate" adventure, 
Aboyne, with a party of soldiers, took refuge in Carlisle. 
Besieged there by the English ever since, he had now 
escaped ; and Montrose, getting news of it, had marched 
to Loch Ard, twenty miles west of Stirling, to meet him. 



A ROYALIST VICTORIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 265 

Soon after this, on the 21st of April, at Cardross, still 
nearer to Stirling, Lord Napier's son, the Master of Napier, 
just escaped from the Covenanters at Edinburgh, came 
into the camp, and was welcome. Marching northward 
again, in the direction of Loch Tay, the Royalists passed 
through Athole and Perthshire, close by the skirts of 
the hills, till they came to the sources of the River 
South Esk. Scaling the mountains there, they went down 
their northern slopes, through Glen Muick, to the River 
Dee : crossing it, near Balmorel, they came about the end 
of April to Skene, a dozen miles or so west of Aberdeen. 
About this time Allester Macdonald, coming from the west 
with the Highlanders he had gathered, joined the Royal- 
ists ; and Lord Gordon came with one thousand foot and 
two hundred horse. Montrose was now ready to face his 
opponents ; wanting, however, a very necessary article, 
gunpowder, of which he was often in need. Lord Aboyne 
undertook to supply this want, and did it ; riding with 
eighty horse under cover of the dark into Aberdeen, he 
got twenty barrels of powder from a vessel in the harbor, 
and brought it to the camp before day dawned. Sir John 
Hurry, then in Banffshire, retreated westward, Montrose 
following, across the Spey, near its mouths, to Elgin, to 
Forres, and thence onward, along the coast, towards In- 
verness. At night of Thursday, 8th of May, a dark, rainy 
night, Montrose halted at, or near, the village of Aulderne : 
his army a volunteer one, not under pay, fluctuating al- 
ways, consisted at this time of only about fifteen hundred 
foot and two hundred horse. Sir John Hurry, having been 
joined by the Earls of Seaforth, Sutherland, and Findlater, 
had now three thousand foot and six hundred horse, or 
near that ; and, proposing battle, he marched on Aulderne. 
Montrose, aware of the approach of his opponents, made 
23 



266 JAMES GRAHAM, MAEQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

skilful preparation for the contest. The village of Aul- 
derne stands, or seems to me to stand, on a hillocky ridge, 
running northerly and southerly, with a little valley east 
of it. The ground west of the village is broken and un- 
even, and at its northern end there are, or were then, 
dikes, enclosures, and brushwood ; and in these Montrose 
placed four hundred men under Allester Macdonald, giving 
him orders to defend his position to the uttermost, but on 
no account to advance beyond it. The main body of the 
army, horse and foot, was stationed behind the ridge, near 
the southerly end of the village, out of sight of the enemy ; 
who, at early morn of Friday, May 9, were advancing 
from the west. Of reserve, the Royalists had none ; and 
of centre none, or next to none ; only a semblance of one 
was made by placing a few cannon in front of the village, 
and a few musketeers among the outer houses of it. Gen- 
eral Hurry, deceived by this disposition of forces, supposed 
the village to be occupied, and the main body of the enemy 
to be at its northern end, where the royal standard, a large 
yellow flag, floated over troops in numbers unknown to 
him, for the dikes and enclosures there might conceal 
many. On this point, therefore, where the standard 
seemed to indicate the presence of the royal Lieutenant, 
Hurry ordered his main attack. Macdonald and his men, 
little accustomed to the defensive, rushed out, forgetful of 
orders, on the advancing foe ; and, after hard struggle, 
were driven back by overwhelming numbers into their en- 
closures, where they made stand again. At this critical 
moment Montrose brought his main body from its place of 
concealment ; himself leading the foot, and Lord Gordon 
the horse. Charging the right flank of the Covenanters, he 
threw their whole array into disorder. In the fight, and 
in the pursuit that followed it, very many were slain ; and 



A EOTALIST VICTORIOUS FOE A TWELVEMONTH. 267 

those who escaped death fled far, and scattered wide ; the 
followers of the Earls Seaforth and Sutherland westward 
to their homes ; General Hurry himself, with about one 
hundred horse, southwards to General Baillie ; who, at the 
time, was marching towards the north to try his hand at 
Montrose. 

The Royalists, burying their dead, who were few, at 
Aulderne, marched, with their wounded, along the northern 
coast eastward to Elgin. After some days of rest there, 
they crossed the Spey, and, marching southerly up Strath- 
spey, were, on the 27th of May, at Invereshie, near the 
woods of Rothiemurchus ; General Baillie being at that 
time not far off on the other side of the Spey. Dating at 
Invereshie as above, Montrose wrote to John Robertson of 
Inver, his Captain of Blair- Athole : — 

Invee : 

I received yours, and have directed along ammu- 
nition unto you. You will be careful of all that con- 
cerns your charge untill my coming into that country, 
which, I hope, shall be shortly. Also, you shall hasten 
the exchange of prisoners, and show Crinnen [Campbell 
of Crinnen] that I am informed that there is one Mr. 
Naper, brother to my Lord Naper, a prisoner with them, 
against whom they intend to proceed in a seeming legal 
way; which, if they do, let him assure them from me, 
that I will use the like severity against some of their 
prisoners, [or say, rather, my prisoners,] and you will 
acquaint me with what answer you receive from them 
thereanent. Also let me hear from you with diligence, all 
such intelligence as you can learn from the border ; and 
concerning Lindsay. You will shew Crinnen that if they 
will exchange Mr. Naper I shall be content to release 



268 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OP MONTROSE. 

another prisoner for him of a like quality ; and let me 
have a speedy and positive answer thereanent. 

Montrose. 

My Lord Naper, this letter writer says ; which was the 
correct spelling then. The name, some say, was originally 
Naperer, " one who had the care of the royal linen." It 
changed to Naper, and then again to Napier ; a name 
borne by good men to this day. Montrose, in his boy- 
hood, spelt his own title-name Montrois, as did his father 
before him : and the family name was spelt Grcsme, Gra- 
hame, or Graham, according to the fancies of different 
bearers of it. 

The Mr. Naper mentioned in the foregoing letter had 
been seized by the Covenanters somewhere with " papers," 
— letters to or from Montrose, — and was in danger of his 
life. Montrose, therefore, in this case, as in others when 
his friends were in danger, threatened "to use the like 
severity " against Covenanters whom he held prisoners ; 
but there is nowhere any proof, or intimation, that he was 
severe, or unkind even, to any one of them. His threat, 
however, in this case, had effect; for "Mr. Naper, pris- 
oner in the Tolbooth," was, on the 13th of June, delivered 
" to Sir Archibald Campbell, to be disposed on as he shall 
think fit;" and he probably exchanged him for Colin 
Campbell, then a prisoner in Blair Castle. Not this Mr. 
Napier alone, but other Napiers were in danger, or in 
trouble. When the royal standard was raised in Scot- 
land, the Napiers were placed under surveillance, and 
confined to their own houses. After the escape of the 
Master of Napier, his father, Lord Napier, then near 
seventy years of age, was cast into prison and fined ten 
thousand pounds Scot ; and the Covenanters imprisoned 



A EOYALIST VICTORIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 269 

also young Napier's wife, the Lady Elizabeth Erskine, 
daughter of the Earl of Mar ; his two sisters, one of them 
the wife of Sir George Stirling of Keir ; and Sir George 
Stirling himself. No man in Scotland, within reach of 
the Covenanters, dared at that time to say a good word of 
Montrose, who had been excommunicated by the Church, 
forfeited by the State, and had had a price set on his head : 
to communicate with him in any way was high treason. 

In the above letter to his Captain of Blair, the royal 
Lieutenant inquires concerning Lindsay — Lord Lindsay, 
then commanding an army for the Covenant in the south 
of Scotland. He inquires, too, for intelligence " from the 
borders ; " and would like to know if the King's army is 
getting into Scotland, or trying to get in ; for the King, it 
appears, had a purpose of the kind. One James Small, a 
messenger from King Charles, delivered a package to Mon- 
trose in the Highlands, about the middle of April : but 
when returning to England, with letters in reply, he, in 
the disguise of a pedler, feU into the hands of the Cov- 
enanters, and was hanged at Edinburgh on the 1st of May. 
*' By these letters," says Bishop Guthrie, " the Committee 
came to know what they had never thought on, namely, 
how, the King's business being so forlorn in England that 
he could not make head against his enemies there, his 
Majesty designed to come to Scotland and join Montrose ; " 
"the prevention of which design was afterwards gone 
about with success." 

The King's Lieutenant-General, however, was not in 
force sufficient to get to the borders even if the King could 
have met him there. Now, after victory at Aulderne, as 
always after victory, his Highlanders returned to their 
homes in the west ; and with them went Alexander or 
AUester Macdonald ; intending, I suppose, to bring them to 



270 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

the King's standard again, or to bring others in their stead. 
Montrose, as was his wont under such circumstances, 
inarched now through difficult places ; and General Bail- 
lie followed him, or tried to follow. About the middle of 
May, Baillie was in Strathbogie in pursuit of the " rebels," 
— rebels against the Covenanters, — and, for a while, we 
will follow the account he himself gave of his doings, in 
his *' Vindication." " I marched from Cromar towards 
Strathbogie, where the rebels," six days after the battle of 
Aulderne, "were arrived the night before; and General- 
Major Hurry joined me, about a mile from thence, with 
about one hundred horse, who had saved themselves with 
him at Aulderne. At our approach the rebels drew unto 
the places of advantage about the yards and dikes," near 
Huntly's castle ; *' and I stood embattled before them 
from four o'clock untill the morrow ; judging them to have 
been about our o^vn strength," which judgment I think to 
be not far from correct ; only the rebels, being much 
weaker than Baillie in horse, did not think proper to leave 
their "places of advantage," and come into open field. 
" Upon the morrow, as soon as it was day, we found they 
were gone to Balveny : we marched immediately after 
them, and came in sight of them about Glenlivet, bewest 
Balveny some few miles," and about twenty miles south- 
west of Strathbogie ; " but that night they outmarched us 
and quartered some six leagues from us. On the next 
day, early, we found they were dislodged, but could find 
nobody to inform us of their march ; yet, by the lying of 
the grass and heather," where they had tramped along, " we 
conjectured they were marched to the wood of Abernethy 
on Spey. Thither I marched and found them" about 
twenty miles farther on in the south-west, " on the entry 
of Badenoch, a very straight country, where, both for in- 
accessable rocks and woods, and the interposition of the 



A KOYAUST VICTORIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 271 

river, it was impossible for us to come at them. Here we 
lay looking upon one another, the enemy having their meal 
from Ruthven in Badenoch, and flesh from the country; 
whereof we saw none ; untill for want of meal — other vict- 
uals we had none, the few horsemen professing they had not 
eaten in forty-eight hours — I was necessitated to march 
northward to Inverness, to be supplied there. Which 
done I returned," or say, rather, marched eastward, 
"crossed at Spey-mouth in boats, and came to Newton 
in Garioch," about twenty miles north-west of Aberdeen. 
" Here, Hurry, pretending indisposition, left me : " and 
" I was informed the rebels had been as far south as Cupar 
in Angus," which is besouth the Grampian range and 
within twenty miles of Perth ; and I learned also that the 
rebels "were returned to Corgarff, upon the head of 
Strathdon ; " and they were then, therefore, only about a 
day's march south-west of Baillie's own army. Montrose 
had made a long march, outmarching Baillie again very 
much ; and we will note briefly what he did in the course of 
it. After Baillie, in want of victuals, withdrew to Inverness, 
for supply of that want, Montrose marched northerly 
down the Spey, to TuUochgorum, and wrote thence on 
the 6th of June, 1645, to his Captain of Blair : — 

Inver : 

I have ofttimes written to you before, anent the Irishes 
who straggled to your country, and for punishing of them ; 
and it is only the neglect of my orders which makes them 
so insolent. Wherefore these are to will and command 
you that immediately after sight hereof, you pursue all 
such Irishes as can be found in the country, with fire 
and sword ; and that you burn of the houses of all those 
who reset them ; as you will answer on the contrary at 
your highest peril. Montrose. 



272 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

Irish vagabonds, deserters from the royal army, and 
others who wander about stealing and threatening, shall 
fare hard ; as all such creatures, Irish or not, ought to fare. 

From Tullochgorum, Montrose went, by forced marches, 
to the Grampians, and across them ; having probably got 
answer from this Captain of Blair to the inquiry made by 
letter on the 27th of May, " concerning Lindsay," and learned 
that he. Lord Lindsay, with his army, was coming north- 
ward, and had crossed the Forth. Montrose found him at 
the Castle of Newtyle, at or near the water of Isla in 
Forfarshire, and came within seven miles of his camp, but 
did not attack him, being, probably, too weak for it ; for 
the Gordon horse had, shortly before, left the army and 
gone to their homes, for cause to me unknown. Lord 
Gordon, eldest son of Huntly, however, remained; he, 
having learned to know Montrose, had become a firm 
friend, and determined to cast in his lot with him for bet- 
ter or for worse. When the army, moving northward 
again, came to " Corgarfif, near the head of Strathdon," 
Lord Gordon, despatched for the purpose, brought in again 
Lord Aboyne with the Gordon horse. At this time, Bail- 
lie, as w^ remember, being in Garioch, the armies were 
within twenty miles of each other, and the commanders 
inclined to battle. The Royalists, marching easterly, found 
their opponents at the Kirk of Keith, near the River Don 
about fifteen miles from Aberdeen, well placed on rising 
ground, and in possession of a narrow pass which lay 
between the two armies. Montrose sent a challenge of 
battle if Baillie would come down to fair field on the plain ; 
and got answer like the one Baillie gave him to such chal- 
lenge once before. But the commander of the "rebels," 
failing to get a battle-field to suit him in this way, tried 
another. Marching in haste westerly, as if in full retreat. 



A ROYALIST VICTOEIOTJS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 273 

he halted at Alford, on the Don. The district in which 
Alford stands is enclosed by high hills, and is difficult of 
entrance for an army. The River Don, coming into the 
district on its western border through a narrow gully 
among mountains, winds about and goes out of it on the 
east through a little valley, on the north side of which 
stands Bennochie with its bold peaks of reddish granite. 
Coming into this district, Montrose posted his troops on 
*' Alford Hill ; " and then, with a single troop of horse, he 
set to work examining the fords of the Don, some one of 
which he might have occasion to use soon. Learning that 
Baillie was close at hand, he left his troop to watch the 
fords, and galloped oflf alone to form his battle array. 
The day was July 2, 1645, and the armies were in num- 
bers nearly equal — about two thousand each ; but the 
Royalists had only two hundred and fifty horse, while their 
opponents had double that number. AUester Macdonald, 
Major- General of the Irish, being at this time recruiting 
in the Western Highlands, and the Ogilvies absent too, 
the King's Lieutenant had to order his battle without 
them. His position was on rising ground, a little ridge 
running along the summit of it ; and in front of this ridge 
the main body of foot was drawn up under command of 
the Laird of Glengarry (a Macdonald) and Drummond of 
Balloch. The cavalry was in two bodies ; one on the 
right, under Lord Gordon and Sir Nathaniel Gordon, and 
the other on the left, in charge of Lord Aboyne and Sir 
William RoUo. Behind the ridge, out of sight of the 
enemy, a body of reserve was placed under command of 
the Master of Napier, having in its rear, at the foot of the 
hill, a marsh full of ditches and pitfalls ; good ground, 
this, to fight in front of ; good enough for victory, but not 
so good in case of defeat. The Covenanters advancing, 



274 JAMES GEAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTEOSE. 

the battle began and went on after the fashion of such 
things ; the Gordons charged with their horse, and did it 
well : the Irish and Highlanders met sturdy opponents, 
and had a hard struggle for victory. When the fight was 
at the hottest, Montrose ordered his reserve forward over 
the ridge, under young Napier, who in this, his first battle 
I believe, did well; and "the rebels" — rebels to the 
King — gave way and fled on all sides. General Baillie, 
giving account of this matter on his side of it, says : 
" The Lord Balcarras' horsemen were divided into three 
squadrons, himself charging gallantly with two of them 
upon the enemy's right wing where their horse were." 
But the third squadron in reserve, when ordered to ad- 
vance, only went to the rear of the others, and remained 
there until they were all broken. " Our foot stood with 
myself, and behaved as became them, until the enemy's 
horse charged in our rear, and in front we were over- 
charged with their foot." *' The enemy had likewise two 
bodies of reserve," and these completed our defeat. 

Montrose had the victory ; but with it a great loss. 
Towards the close of the battle, George, Lord Gordon, 
pierced by a musket ball, fell dead on the field. Patrick 
Gordon, well acquainted with both these men, says : " So 
real was his (Lord Gordon's) aff*ection, and so great the 
estimation he had of the other, that when they fell into 
any familiar discourse, it was often remarked that the 
ordinary air of his countenance was changed from a serious 
listening to a certain ravishment, or admiration, of the 
other's witty expressions ; and he was often heard in pub- 
lic to speak sincerely," and say, in eff'ect, that whatever 
might be the fortune of Montrose, good or bad, he, for 
one, would never desert him. 

Sir William RoUo, who in this battle appears again. 



A ROYALIST VICTOIMOTJS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 275 

was, as we remember, sent to the King on the 14th of 
September, after the battle of Aberdeen, with despatches 
from Montrose. Returning, he fell into the hands of the 
Covenanters; and escaped death, and got liberty, by 
means of a lie ; but there is a difference in lies, and this 
one was not of the worst kind. According to the account 
of Rollo himself, the Marquis of Argyle released him 
under promise that he would betray Montrose to the Cov- 
enanters, or take his life. 

The loss of the Royalists at this battle of Alford was 
small in numbers ; while that of the Covenanters was, as 
in all these battles, great. General Baillie, Lord Balcar- 
ras, and a part of the horse, escaped, and gave account of 
themselves at Edinburgh ; but the rest of the army, slain 
or scattered, was heard of no more in the field of action. 
Four days after this battle Montrose was thirty miles 
south-west of Aberdeen, and writing under date *' Craig- 
toun, the 6th July, 1645," as follows : — 

" For John Robertson, of Inver, in the Castle of Blair, 
in Athole. 

John: 

These are to show you that I marvel much that I do 
not hear more frequently from you, both concerning the 
prisoners and other things from your place. Therefore 
these are to will you that you be more frequent in relating 
to me what is done concerning the enlargement of the 
prisoners and such other things as is requisite that I be 
acquainted with. Which hoping you shall do, I rest your 
loving friend, Montrose. 

Ye will hasten to give particular notice and intelli- 
gence through all the country of the last happy victory." 



276 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

From Craigtoun the Royalists marched south through 
Kincardineshire into Forfarshire, where Patrick Graham, 
with men of Athole, and AUester Macdonald, with men 
from the west, came in to Montrose, who now was at the 
head of nearly five thousand men ; Macleans about seven 
hundred ; Macdonalds of Clanranald, five hundred ; Mac- 
donalds of Glengarry, five hundred ; Farquharsons from 
Braemar ; Macphersons from Badenoch ; Mac-Gregors and 
Macnabs, from their wild homes in the hills. Wild men 
all of them, who, since the invasion of Argyleshire and 
the battle of Inverlochy, were free from thraldom to the 
Campbells. But for operations in the Lowlands horse 
were needed ; and the Gordons were slow to come. When 
George, Lord Gordon, fell at Alford, Montrose lost in that 
accomplished man not only a congenial companion, but his 
hold of the clan Gordon ; for Viscount Aboyne, who then 
became the heir of Huntly, was capricious always. The 
old Marquis himself, though loyal to the King, was un- 
friendly to the King's Lieutenant- General ; for Huntly's 
commission as Lieutenant of the King in the north was of 
date prior to that of Montrose ; and the old soldier was a 
little jealous of this successful young one, perhaps. He 
remembered, too, I think, that transaction years ago 
whereby he became a prisoner, and the Covenanter Mon- 
trose, governed then by " a committee and a vote," was 
led into wrong-doing. For these reasons, or for others, 
the chief of the Gordons held them back from the King's 
standard upreared by Montrose, who courted them al- 
ways, for that powerful clan was strong in horse, which 
he needed for operations in the Lowlands ; needed espe- 
cially at this time, when the Covenanters were gathering 
forces again. 

The Parliament, which met at Stirling six days after 



A ROYALIST VICTORIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 277 

the battle of Alford, ordered levies for a new army of ten 
thousand foot and five hundred horse ; but General Baillie, 
little pleased with his opponent in the field, perhaps, and 
certainly dissatisfied with his friends in council, declined 
the command of it. The Covenanters, however, who had 
no abler man, urged him again, and he, though unwilling, 
accepted. " Because," said General Baillie, — " because I 
would not consent to receive orders from the Marquis of 
Argyle, if casually we should have met together in the 
field after I had received commission to command in chief 
over all the forces within the kingdom, my Lord seemed 
to be displeased, and expressed himself so unto some, 
that if he lived he should remember it ; wherein his Lord- 
ship indeed hath been superabundantly as good as his 
word." Nevertheless, a military committee, with Argyle 
at the head of it, was appointed to advise and control; 
and the unfortunate General had trouble enough. He 
came at last, probably, to the belief that the charge, made 
by Montrose long ago, about dictatorship in Scotland, 
was not without foundation ; but Baillie, though complain- 
ing much, was cautious in expression. 

The new army, to be commanded by this General Bail- 
lie, was to rendezvous on the 24th of July, at or near 
Perth ; where the Parliament, driven first from Edinburgh, 
and then from Stirling, by the plague, assembled at that 
date. In Perth there was then a strong garrison and four 
hundred horse for protection of Parliament ; while the 
main body of the army, as it came together, encamped 
near the city on the south side of the Earn. The Royal- 
ists, on the other hand, crossing the Tay at Dunkeld, came 
about the end of July to the wood of Methven, and en- 
camped there within ten miles of Perth. Mounting men 
on baggage horses, and thus making a show of cavalry, 

24 



278 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

the royal Lieutenant deceived the Covenanters for a time ; 
when the deception became apparent, they came forth to 
attack him ; but he, not ready yet for battle, retreated to 
the hills, or to the edge of them, where he found "places 
of advantage." Always this General avoided battle in 
open field when he had no cavalry to oppose to that of the 
enemy ; for his Highlanders were little used to cannon, 
which they called " the musket's mother," or to troops of 
horse ; and the wild men were liable to sudden panic in 
their presence. On the 1st of August, Montrose was at 
Little Dunkeld, in want of beef; and he sent thence an 
order to his Captain of Blair to get two hundred cows, 
and forward them to the army " for present supply ; " and, 
in order to equalize the matter, this Captain had directions 
to " stent every one within the country, according to his 
quality and condition, that every one may have his share 
of the burden" — " and at the first convenient season they 
shall have the same repaid to them." The cows doubtless 
came, but the convenient season for payment, if it did not 
come immediately after the next battle, came, perhaps, 
never. 

Here, at Little Dunkeld, Lord Aboyne and Colonel 
Nathaniel Gordon, with two hundred mounted Gordons, 
joined the Royalists ; the old Earl of Airlie, and his son 
Sir David Ogilvy, with eighty gentlemen, mounted too, 
came in, and the army marched southward into the Low- 
lands. General Baillie, in command of the Covenanters, 
gives an account of the movements of the armies preced- 
ing the battle of Kilsyth, and of the battle itself;* which, 
with occasional omissions and interpolations, will be of 

* See papers " presented by Lieutenant-General Baillie to the Parliament of 
Scotland," published in the Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie, edited 
by David Laing. Edinburgh, vol. ii. pp. 420-425. 



A EOYALIST VIOTOEIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 279 

use to us. " The Rebels returned from the hills into 
Logie- Almond," and "I marched" southward from Perth 
" to the south side of the bridge of Earn." " Second day 
thereafter, the Rebels having crossed Earn at Denning," 
higher up the river, "presented themselves before our 
quarters;" which were at Kilgraston, near the slope of 
the Ochils, at the northern extremity of that range of 
hills. The Covenanters had intrenched and fortified as 
strongly as was possible in brief time, and " the Rebels," 
looking at us a while, " marched up towards the hills, on 
the right hand." Then " the Rebels," led by Montrose, 
as appears by other accounts, passed along the north- 
eastern skirts of the Ochils, or through them at Glen 
Farg, and moved slowly towards Stirling. On the way, 
the vengeful Ogilvies and Macleans, deviating a little from 
the line of march, came to Castle Campbell, once called 
the " Castle of Gloom," standing on its peninsulated rock, 
on the southern slope of the Ochils ; and the old castle, a 
possession of Argyle's, smoking, burst into flames : Argyle 
himself, marching with Baillie, saw next day the ruins 
of it. But we will let Baillie, who followed on not far in 
the rear of the Royalists, speak again. "Hearing the 
Rebels had crossed Forth above Stirling, those of the com- 
mittee then present advised we should cross at Stirling ; 
and a little above the Park, on the south-west side there- 
of, I halted with the five regiments untill those of Fife 
were brought up." For these Fife regiments Baillie had 
been waiting ; and now when they arrived, he, knowing 
himself to be numerically superior to his opponent, was 
more confident ; and the members of his military com- 
mittee were more confident still, and eager for battle. At 
Stirling Baillie learned, that " the Rebels were marched 
towards Kilsyth ; " and there was then a conference with 



280 JAMES GEAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

the military committee — Marquis of Argyle, Earl of Craw- 
ford, Earl of Tullibardine, Lords Burleigh, Elcho, and 
Balcarras. At this conference General Baillie, much vexed, 
made his complaints of the doings of this committee ; com- 
plaints many and well founded; for he now, like Mon- 
trose long ago, *' could get nothing done of himself alone." 
The conclusion, however, was, to march forward towards 
the Rebels ; and we accordingly marched over the bridge 
of Denny, and thence " to Hollenbush ; where we lodged 
that night," only about two and a half miles from Kilsyth ; 
where the Royalist army then was ; there, or very near it. 
Bishop Guthrie says : " When the Royalists came to 
Kilsyth, they found the ground so advantageous for them, 
as made them resolve to halt there untill their enemies 
should have come that length." Very good ground, 
certainly, Montrose found it to be ; a sloping meadow, 
large enough for the movements of his army ; around 
it bogs, rough ground, and small hills, on three sides 
at least ; so that the Covenanters could not get at him 
easily. Westward and northward, in his rear, distant 
a mile or two, stood the Campsie Fells, — a rough range, 
or cluster, of hills, which, in case the day should go 
against him, would serve for a rallying point, or place of 
refuge. Very good ground evidently ; and the General, 
who chose it, was provident as well as daring : the able 
man, in war or in peace, trusts to luck never, but to 
something better always. Here, on this green sloping 
meadow, at early morn on the 15th of August, 1645, 
Montrose drew up his men in battle array ; a many- 
colored host, for each clan had its tartan. Between the 
deep blue and green of the Gordons and the flaming 
red of the Mac-Gregors, the hues were many ; and the 
Irish had, or should have had, their coat and trews. The 



A ROYALIST VICTORIOUS TOR A TWELVEMONTH. 281 

Covenanters that morning were east of the Royalists ; but 
as the ground between them was of a kind difficult for an 
army to march over, Montrose was uncertain on what 
quarter the attack would be made, and his array, there- 
fore, was in form of two sides of a triangle — a part 
facing easterly, and a part southerly, so that by moving 
either wing, as need might be, the whole could come into 
line. Baillie, urged by the military committee, himself 
rather unwilling, moved his army towards the Rebels. 
" I marched," he says, " through the corn and over the 
braes, untill the unpassable ground did hold us up : there 
I embattled, where I doubt if twenty men on front could 
either have gone from or attacked us." Here, on this 
ground, Baillie inclined to remain and await what might 
betide : but the committee, or a member of it, asked, " If 
we could not draw up to the hill on our right ? I showed 
them I did not conceive that ground to be good." But 
Argyle, and others, were eager for the movement; for 
they believed that the Rebels were about to march west- 
ward, and escape into the Campsie Fells. 

Baillie, therefore, though unwilling again, ordered a 
flank movement northerly ; the regiment on his extreme 
right facing to the right and marching to the hill, and 
facing westward again there ; the other regiments fol- 
lowing in order, as their turn came, and closing up to the 
right. A rather dangerous movement this, in front of an 
enemy wide awake and all ready for the fight ; wide 
awake, and in its shirt sleeves, too. The August day 
was of the hottest ; and Montrose, seeing there was work 
to be done, ordered his men to cast off their upper gar- 
ments : a remarkable army certainly, standing there on its 
grassy slope, in its shirt sleeves, and to a great extent 
without breeches; worse than that even, for when many 
24* 



282 JAMES GKAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

of these wild Irish and wild Highlanders, in stripping, 
came to the place where the shirt ought to be, it was not 
there. Of this order to strip, many differing accounts are 
given ; it came, we may say, from a soldierly instinct ; 
for it said, more emphatically than any words could say it : 
There is work to be done to-day, and I expect every man 
of you to do his part of it. But indeed there was little 
need of any order for stripping ; for it was the way of 
these Red-shanks to throw off cumbrous garments when 
battle was imminent. Their mode of fight was a prim- 
itive one after the manner of the ancients, hand to hand 
with little science, but much hard work in it. 

In front of the Royalists' position, a small, rough glen 
ran from the meadow up to the ground on which the Cov- 
enanters were forming into rank ; and around the head of 
it were some scattered cottages and enclosures ; and there 
the battle began ; but we will follow General Baillie's 
statement a little farther. " I sent the commanded mus- 
queteers to the hill, and desired Major Halden to be their 
guide unto an enclosure which I pointed out to him ; he 
did it. I followed them immediately with Lord Balcarras 
and the horsemen." " The Earl of Crawford, Lord Bur- 
leigh and I galloped over the brae to see the posture of 
the enemy, who were embattled on the meadow ; and sun- 
dry of them, disbanded, were falling up the glen through 
the bushes." " At our return to the brae-head we found 
the Marquis of Argyle, with sundry others ; and we saw 
Major Halden leading up a party of musqueteers over the 
field toward a house near the glen, without any order from 
me ; " " nor would they come off when I ordered." 
" Wherefore, seeing the Rebels fall up strong," " I de- 
sired the officers to go to their charge." At this time, the 
flank movement which Baillie had ordered, was still going 



A ROYALIST VICTORIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 283 

on ; and he says : " Looking back I find Hume," with his 
regiment, *' had left the way I had put him in, and was 
gone at a trot right west in among the dikes, and toward 
the enemy." " I followed as fast as I could ride," giving 
orders ; one to General-Major Leslie " to draw up the 
regiments of Fife in reserve as before ; " but before I 
could come to Hume, " his regiment and three others had 
taken in an enclosure from which, the enemy being so 
near, it was impossible to bring them off." " The Rebels' 
foot by this time were approached to the next dike, on 
whom our musqueteers made more fire than I could have 
wished," the distance being too great for execution. " In 
the end the Rebels leapt over the dike, and, with down 
heads, fell on and broke these regiments." The High- 
landers seen by Baillie "falling up the glen" disbanded, 
each man picking his way among rocks and bushes, were 
a hundred of the Clan Maclean, ordered by Montrose to 
take possession of cottages and enclosures around the 
head of the glen, as soon as he, noting Baillie's flank 
movement, saw where the battle-ground would be : and 
when the musqueteers under Major Halden, opened fire 
on these Highlanders, the main body of the Clan Maclean 
broke away from the meadow, and rushed forward to assist 
their brethren, followed, in a race for precedence, by the 
Clan Ranald and the Mac-Gregors. At this time it was, 
that Hume's, and three other regiments of the Covenant- 
ers, ** going off right west toward the enemy, had taken 
in an enclosure not far from the head of the glen ; for 
they saw, what Baillie probably could not see, the High- 
landers rushing forward ; and therefore they sought cover, 
which, however, availed them little ; for the Highlanders 
*' leapt over the dike, and, with down heads, fell on and 
broke these regiments." With down heads they came on, 



284 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

which is the usual posture of these men when rushing 
into battle, making so the smallest possible mark for shot 
of the enemy. So the battle began ; a little sooner, it 
seems, than Montrose had intended ; but seeing the need 
of support to his hasty Highlanders, he ordered the old 
Earl of Airlie, with his Ogilvies and other gentlemen, to 
charge : the Gordon horse followed, and he himself led 
his main body forward. The battle was brief, for the 
Covenanters gave way at once ; but the pursuit was long, 
and the slaughter great. Baillie, not accusing others, says 
modestly that he was " not either the last in the fight, or 
the first in the flight." All who were mounted, flying be- 
times and riding hard, escaped ; the gentlemen of the mil- 
itary committee, the greater part of the officers, a part of 
the cavalry, — these escaped with life ; but the foot sol- 
diers were almost entirely destroyed, and the battle of 
Kilsyth was long remembered in the region round 
about it. 

In these battles of Tippermuir, Aberdeen, Inverlochy, 
Aulderne, Alford, Kilsyth, all within a twelvemonth, the 
victories were complete ; each army of Covenanters, in 
part destroyed, in part scattered beyond hope of collection, 
ceased to be an army at all. On this annihilation of ar- 
mies as armies, the actual slaughter being much exagger- 
ated, rests the charge of cruelty made by the Covenanters 
against Montrose ; let us therefore look at the matter a 
little. The men led by him were Highlanders and Irish, 
wild men not under pay, and not under contract of ser- 
vice. He had no military chest, no munitions of war, no 
means of providing for these men but such as could be got 
from their opponents. It is evident that Montrose held 
his wild and ever-changing troops with a strong hand : 
but the perfect horseman humors his horse, as well as 



A EOYALIST VICTOKIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 285 

masters him ; otherwise the long journey would be uncom- 
fortable to both : and the leader of this wild host, career- 
ing over Scotland, governed it somewhat in that way ; for, 
indeed, he could not govern it at all otherwise. When 
the day of battle came, he made masterly dispositions for 
it; choosing his ground, placing his men on it, and hold- 
ing them with a strong hand till the decisive moment 
came ; then he let them loose, and, with a wild rush, they 
went beyond his reach or control, and, for a time, did their 
wild work in their own way. Decisive victories are, on 
the whole, best ; better than indecisive ones followed by 
other battles. Indeed, we may say of war generally, that 
the laws of it are not the same as the laws of peace, but 
essentially different. The laws of peace are for the con- 
tinuance of it ; the laws of war, on the contrary, are for 
the ending of it ; and when a matter, after long dispute, 
does come to blows, the rule is, to strike hard and end it ; 
the sooner the better, so that sweet peace, with its bless- 
ings, may come again. In this way, with small means, 
Montrose in six battles, all within a twelvemonth, con- 
quered Scotland, and earned his title. The Great Marquis. 
After this battle of Kilsyth, no army remained in all 
Scotland to oppose the conqueror. From the field he 
wrote to the magistrates of Glasgow : Command " all the 
people of your town" " to remain in their own houses" 
and " to make ready all sorts of provisions for passing of 
the army." If they would do as commanded, he assured 
them they should be protected, but if they would not, they 
should fare hard. When the army, a few days after, 
passed through Glasgow, there was, I think, provision 
enough for it ; and at Bothwell, six miles from it where 
the army encamped, there was no want — no want, at 
least, of food. Here, at his camp, the successful General 



286 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

held a kind of court ; and Marquises, Earls, Lords, came 
into it ; many of them, not loyal to the King before, pro- 
fessed loyalty now. Shires and towns sent deprecating 
deputations, and my Lord Marquis of Montrose was kind 
and gracious ; if also, according to his wont, lofty and 
stately. 

The Major-General of the Irish, AUester Macdonald, 
was sent with forces to suppress some rising among the 
Covenanters, but found no need to use his forces ; and the 
Master of Napier, with Sir Nathaniel Gordon and two 
hundred horse, to summon Edinburgh, and release friends 
from prison there and at Linlithgow ; but with orders 
to quarter the horse outside the city, for a pestilence, the 
plague, was then raging there and in other cities. Young 
Napier's wife ; the old Lord his father ; his two sisters, 
and the husband of one of them, Su' George Stirling of 
Keir, were released at Linlithgow ; and at Edinburgh the 
Earl of Crawford and Lord Ogilvy. The town-council 
sent delegates to my Lord Marquis, and made unconditional 
surrender of the city ; but the Covenanters held the castle 
still. Men of all degrees, Covenanters many of them, 
took passes and protections from the victor, who granted 
them freely; his principal pass-book, still to be seen, 
shows that he gave over four hundred of them while in 
camp at Bothwell. 

Among the many who came into this camp-court was 
one poet, Drummond of Hawthornden ; he came, or had 
the distinction of being invited to come. This William 
Drummond was of some note among the literary men of 
that time ; and fat Ben Jonson once came trudging all 
the way from London on foot, to visit him at his beautiful 
place of Hawthornden, near Edinburgh : Drummond jotted 
down on paper some of the sayings of his notable guest. 



A KOYALIST VICTORIOUS FOR A TWELVEMONTH. 287 

which the curious can still read. Montrose, himself in- 
clined to make verses when he had nothing better to do, 
was inclined, also, to patronize other writers of it, provided 
they were loyal ; and this one being of that kind, he wrote 
to him on the 25 th of August, — 

Sir: 

We being informed of your good affection to his Majes- 
ty's service, and that you have written some pieces vindi- 
cating Monarchy from all aspersions, and another named 
Irene ; these are to desire you to repair to our leaguer, 
bringing with you, or sending such papers, that we may 
give orders for putting them to press, to the contentment 
of aU his Majesty's good subjects. Montrose. 

The poet, answering, said modestly, " If that piece 
[Irene] can do any service at this time, your Excellency, 
so soon as it can be transcribed, shall command it, either 
to be buried in oblivion if it deserve, or published to the 
view of the world." Irene got transcription then per- 
haps, but not publishment ; nor did it get that until many 
years later. 

Here, to this camp at Bothwell, came messengers from 
King Charles, (two of them,) coming by different routes, 
to make sure of the arrival of one at least. One of them, 
the King's Secretary for Scotland, Sir Robert Spottiswood, 
son of the Archbishop of St. Andrews, was, I suppose, 
well acquainted with Montrose, who, as we remember, 
sometimes dined with the old gentleman, at Darsie, in his 
college days. Sir Robert, who arrived at Bothwell on the 
1st of September, brought to the King's Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral a new commission — commission as "Lieutenant- 
Governor and Captain- General of Scotland, with powers 



288 JAMES GEAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTEOSE. 

to summon parliaments, and to enjoy all the privileges 
previously held by Prince Maurice." On the 3d of Sep- 
tember, the Marquis proclaimed his new commission to 
the assembled army, and made a speech ; one as well 
worth listening to, I think, as others made on like occa- 
sions : but we know of it only this ; that he gave praise 
to his soldiers generally ; special praise to Allester Mac- 
donald ; on whom, having now power to do such things, 
he conferred the honor of knighthood. Alastair Mac- 
choUa-chiotach, Mhic-Ghiollesbuig, Mhic-Alastair, Mhic- 
Evin Chathanich, — these seem to have been the man's 
names in Gaelic ; which being interpreted mean, I am 
told, Alexander, son of Coll the Ambidexter, son of Archi- 
bald, son of Alexander, son of John Cathanach. After 
knighthood the man was called Sir Alexander Macdonald, 
and we will hope that he found that name enough for 
him. He had been a very useful man to Montrose, who 
knew how to guide and govern him ; a boastful kind of 
man, but never backward in battle ; inclined, indeed, to 
be too forward in it. A story told of him, or of his father, 
is, whether true or not, characteristic. On occasion when 
the best man was called for, Keitache stepped forward, 
sword in his left hand, and said: "Here he is!" and 
when the second-best was called for, Keitache came for- 
ward again; and, throwing his sword from left hand to 
right, said once more : " Here he is." 

The Captain- General, having proclaimed his commission, 
made then proclamation to the people of Scotland of a Par- 
liament "to be kept at Glasgow, upon the 20th day of 
October proximo, for settling Religion and Peace, and free- 
ing the oppressed subjects of those insupportable burdens 
they have groaned under this time by gone ; " and he did 
then, doubtless, hope to give real peace to Scotland. 



A KOYALIST DEFEATED, BUT STRUGGLING. 289 

CHAPTER VII. 

A ROYALIST DEFEATED, BUT STRUGGLING. 

The messengers, Sir Robert Spottiswood and another, 
who brought the new commission, brought also orders 
from the King to his Captain- General " to form a junction 
with Home, Roxburgh, and Traquair," — all loyal, or pro- 
fessing to be loyal, — and " to march with all expedition 
to the Tweed." These Earls, with forces, should join 
Montrose at or near the borders ; and the King himself 
had a purpose to join too — if he could. He, having a 
kind of spirit in him, kindled a little at this blaze in the 
north ; but the fire in him was, always, only as of kindling 
stuff, bursting into sudden flame but without central glow 
or continuance — not the right kind of fire for a King. 
Clarendon says : "As far as any resolution was fixed in 
those days, the purpose was to march directly into Scot- 
land to join with the Marquis of Montrose ; " and he, 
therefore, having orders, made ready to meet the King. 
On the 4th of September he broke up his camp at Both- 
well, and prepared to march ; but few would march with 
him. The Gordons, inclined always to guard their own 
estates, went, under lead of Lord Aboyne, to their homes 
in the north ; the Highlanders, loving the hills, and their 
homes in them, marched away into the west ; and with them 
went Sir Alexander Macdonald. The Cap tain- General of 
the King could get none to march with him to meet the 
King, except the poor Irish, a thousand of them, or less, 
who had no home but the camp ; these and the Ogilvies, 
seventy or eighty of them, and some few others, to us 
unknown, were all his force now. The border Earls, how- 

25 



290 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

ever, Home, Roxburgh and Traquair, had promised men 
and means ; and Montrose, nothing doubting, marched to 
join them. On the 6th of September he was at Cranston- 
Kirk, on the eastern edge of Edinburghshire, and learned 
there that General David Leslie, with a large body of 
horse from the Scotch army in England, was coming north 
to oppose him, and had already arrived at Berwick, at the 
mouth of Tweed. Lord Erskine, who gave this informa- 
tion, counselled Montrose to retreat ; but he had orders 
from the King, his master ; counted on aid from the bor- 
der Earls, who had promised it ; had good reason to be- 
lieve that Lord Digby, with a large body of the King's 
horse, was advancing to join him ; and, whatever might 
betide, he himself would not be wanting Changing his 
route, however, he marched from Cranston southward into 
the valley of the Gala ; where, according to appointment, 
he met the Marquis of Douglass and Lord Ogilvy, whom 
he had sent from Bothwell to levy troops in the southern 
shires ; but the force they had gathered was small. Some- 
where in these parts the Earl of Traquair came to Mon- 
trose, and promised much ; but, departing himself, he left 
with the Royalists only a single troop of horse, under his 
son. Lord Linton. On or before the 10th of September, 
this forlorn hope of the King halted at Kelso on Tweed, 
twenty-five miles or so above Berwick ; and there Sir 
Robert Spottiswood, King's Secretary of State for Scot- 
land, who had continued with this remnant of an army 
since it left Bothwell, wrote to Lord Digby, King's Secre- 
tary for England, dating "Kelso, September 10th, 1645 :" 

My Lord : 

We are now arrived ad Columnas Herculis — to Tweed- 
side ; dispersed all the King's enemies within this king- 



A EOYAIilST DEFEATED, BUT STRUGGLING. 291 

dom to several places ; some to Ireland, most of them to 
Berwick, and had no open enemy more to deal with, if you 
had kept David Leslie there, and not suffered him to come 
in here to make head against us of new. It is thought 
strange here that at least you have sent no party after 
him, which we expected ; although he should not [have] 
come at all. You little imagine the difficulties my Lord 
Marquis hath here to wrestle with ; the overcoming of the 
enemy is the least of them ; he hath more to do with his 
seeming friends. Since I came to him, (which was but 
within these ten days, after much toil and hazard,) I have 
seen much of it. He was forced to dismiss his High- 
landers for a season, who would needs return home to look 
to their own affairs. When they were gone, Aboyne took 
a caprice and had away with him the greatest force he 
[the Marquis] had of horse. Notwithstanding whereof 
he resolved to follow his work, and clear this part of the 
kingdom (that was only resting) of the rebels that had fled 
to Berwick, and kept a bustling there. Besides, he was 
invited hereunto by the Earls of Roxburgh and Home; 
who, when he was within a dozen miles of them, have 
rendered their houses and themselves to David Leslie, and 
are carried in as prisoners to Berwick. Traquair hath been 
with him, and promised more than he hath yet performed. 
All these were great disheartenings to any other but him, 
whom nothing of this kind can amaze. With the small 
forces he hath presently with him, he is resolved to pursue 
David Leslie, and not suffer him to grow stronger. If you 
would perform that which you lately promised, both this 
kingdom and the north of England might be soon reduced, 
and considerable assistance sent from hence to his Majesty. 
However, nothing will be wanting on our parts here. 
These that are together are both loyal and resolute ; only 



292 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

a little encouragement from you (as much to let it be seen 
that they are not neglected as for any thing else) would 
croM^n the work speedily. This is all I have for the pres- 
ent, but that I am your Lordship's most faithful friend, 

Ro. Spottiswoode. 

And now let us look and see what King Charles was 
doing on his part. Clarendon has told us what his " reso- 
lution " was ; and he says, also, that General David Leslie, 
with his cavalry, could have been prevented from entering 
Scotland. But this King, who waited on difficulties till 
they became impossibilities, tells his own story very con- 
clusively. 

Montrose : 

Not having patience nor time to vrrite in cypher, I must 
refer you to Digby for what concerns my business, either 
as in relation to you or these southern parts. I shall only 
mention that which I care not, or, to say better, would be 
sorry the world did not know — how much I esteem those 
real, generous, indeed useful obligations (and without 
which, in all probability, before this time, I had not been 
capable to have acknowledged any) you have put upon me ; 
but I will not so injure words as to put upon them what 
they are not capable of ; for in this they can but point at 
that which otherways must be performed ; so as assurance 
of what shall be is one of their chief uses ; and, indeed, 
it is no small part of my misfortune, though the more 
for your glory, that this ' shall be ' is yet all my song to 
you ; and it were inexcusable, if real impossibility were 
not the just excuse. Assuring you that nothing shall be 
omitted, at present or hereafter, for your assistance, or 
that may testify me to be your most assured, faithful, con- 
stant friend, CstARLES R» 

Eagland, 9th September, 1645. 



A HOYALIST DEFEATED, BTJT STRUGGLING. 293 

A very characteristic letter; *' shall be" was all his 
song, and nothing but a song, which is the history of 
Charles the First. The Marquis of Montrose, in disguise 
of a groom, with King's commission in his pocket, could 
get out of England into the Highlands of Scotland, and, 
with such means as we know, conquer the whole of it 
within a twelvemonth ; and then, with that miserable rem- 
nant of an army, march to the borders of England, while 
King Charles, with quite other means, could only make 
bad worse continually. In the early days of this Septem- 
ber he was at Ragland, feasting and hunting with the Mar- 
quis of Worcester, and shall he was all his song. Only 
one thing could be done with such a King, in such a time 
as this ; and the Regicides were right. 

From Kelso the Royalists marched to Jedburgh, and 
thence to Selkirk ; intending, I think, to get into the hills 
which lie farther on in that direction. The town of Sel- 
kirk stands on the right bank of the Ettrick, which there 
runs north-easterly to the Tweed. Just below the town, 
on the opposite side of the river and near it, the ground 
rises into hills ; and, a mile or two above, the Yarrow, 
coming from the north-west, joins itself to Ettrick. Near 
this junction is a hill with wood on and around it, called 
Harehead Wood ; and from this a haugh, or plain, called 
Philiphaugh, four hundred or five hundred yards in width, 
extends itself down the Ettrick a mile, or a little more, to 
the hills below Selkirk. On this haugh, near Harehead 
Wood, Montrose posted his meagre army; Irish, about 
eight hundred of them, and some raw troops gathered on 
his march, numbers unknown, but small ; well placed, it 
seems, with some slight intrenchment, probably north of 
the camp, or north-westerly, where it would be of most 
use. Wishart says, it was the choice of Montrose always 
25"^* 



294 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

to encamp in open field, where his men, sleeping with 
their weapons at hand, were ready for sudden fight; or 
for hasty flight, if need should be ; his habit to encamp 
his army in open field, and to attend in person to the 
placing of outposts, and sending out of patrols ; but at 
this time, being in communication with his Majesty, he had 
other work to do, and therefore, contrary to his wont, he 
intrusted this work to others. 

On the night of the 12th of September, 1645, Mon- 
trose, the Earl of Crawford, the old Earl of Airlie, the 
old Lord Napier, Sir Robert Spottiswood, and others, were 
in the town of Selkirk, holding counsel together ; the 
Marquis himself writing, or dictating, despatches to the 
King. Deceived by false reports of the strength and 
movements of David Leslie, and assured by his scouts that 
no enemy was near, he supposed his troops to be safe for 
this night at least : but Leslie, with six thousand horse, 
was within four miles of Philiphaugh. On the morning 
of the 13th there was a thick mist, and under cover of it 
the squadrons of the enemy approached, and fell on the 
camp. The party in Selkirk, then at breakfast, roused by 
the news, mounted and rode fast; into the Ettrick and 
across it ; and did all that could be done to make defence ; 
but the fight was hopeless from the first. The raw levies 
fled at once ; and escaped, I hope, the most of them ; the 
Irish stood firm, and did battle to the utmost ; till, " on 
quarter promised, they surrendered." Montrose himself, 
and some thirty Cavaliers, continued a hand-to-hand fight, 
quite as long as fighting could be of use, I suppose. It 
has been said that Montrose, seeing the day lost, was bent 
on dying, sword in hand, on the field, and was forced away 
by his friends ; but I hope it was not so : death in that 
fashion is only an imposing kind of suicide — a thing, in 



A KOYALIST DEFEATED, BUT STRUGGLING. 295 

all its kinds, unfit for a man who has much good in him. 
Forced, persuaded, or of his own free will, he, with a little 
troop of mounted Cavaliers, made way somehow through 
the enemy, and galloped off. At some little distance from 
the field they faced about, met and routed a troop of Les- 
lie's horse which followed them, and then fled again west- 
ward up the valley of the Yarrow. General David Leslie, 
who got this easy victory at Philiphaugh, and was well 
rewarded for it, is the David who afterwards hemmed 
Oliver in at Dunbar, and was sure of him ; but Oliver 
prayed, and kept his powder dry, and, at the right time 
for it, struck up the hundred and seventeenth Psalm. 
Leslie, who got honor by this exploit at Philiphaugh, de- 
served none for his treatment of prisoners after it ; though 
others were more guilty in that matter than he. The 
Irish, who surrendered on quarter promised, were, at the 
instigation of some " churchmen," who " declared it to be 
an act of most sinful impiety to spare them," butchered 
on the field by Leslie's troopers. Others of them, taken 
in flight, were, with the camp followers, " women and 
children," thrown off a high bridge and drowned : strag- 
glers, taken afterwards singly, got into prisons and were 
hanged : in one way or another, almost the whole of them 
were exterminated. 

One cannot but pity these poor Irish a little : some 
twelve hundred of them, got together by the Earl of An- 
trim, or his agents, who promised them something better 
than they had known, met Montrose at Blair in Athole, 
and followed him all over Scotland ; over parts of it again 
and again ; forming always the nucleus of his fluctuating 
armies. On six battle-fields they were victors ; and those 
of them who lived got spoils. We know the names of 
only three or four of them: O'Ryan and Lachlin, — 



296 JAMES GKAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

Colonel O'Ryan, and Major Lachlin, — they, made pris- 
oners on quarter promised at Philiphaugh, were hanged at 
Edinburgh. Another, captured some time before while 
straggling a little way from the army, was, it appears, a 
surgeon little indebted to books for his knowledge of the 
healing art : he, Hew McVayne, depones, " that he is a 
chirurgian of his calling ; " depones, *' when the Irish 
rebbelis was at Inverlochie, he was sent to the Blair of 
Athoill to cure some woundit sogouris ; " depones, *' he 
cannot wreatt." Irish Papists and masse-priests the Cov- 
enanters called these men — mass-priests of a kind per- 
haps, but not of a very imposing kind; for where the 
surgeon could not write, the clergy would not be a learned 
body. One other of them we can individualize, but not 
by name ; he, falling on the battle-field of Aberdeen, his 
leg shattered by a cannon ball, took out his knife, and 
cutting off the muscle and tendons, flung the useless part 
away, saying : " Now I cannot march at all at all, and 
my Lord Marquis must make a trooper of me." My 
Lord Marquis put the man into a saddle ; and I hope, for 
the sake of his seat there, that the part of the leg which 
stuck to him reached to the knee, or near it. Half of 
these poor Irish, or a little more than half, got to Philip- 
haugh ; so far they had marched ; and women, their 
wives and others, followed them through it all — followed 
with children too, infants, born some of them on the hill- 
sides, under bushes, — and always the word again was, 
March ! Wretched hours enough they had ; and some, 
too, that by comparison were joyful. We will not give 
all our pity to them and their like, but we will keep a little 
of it for the sons and daughters of luxury, who do not 
march at all, and therefore cannot halt and rest. At last, 
these poor way-worn Irish got too, at Philiphaugh, what we 
shall all get somewhere and somewhen — rest, enough of it. 



A ROYALIST DEFEATED, BUT STRUGGLING. 297 

The flying Marquis, to whom flight of this kind was 
new, had with him the Marquis of Douglass, Lord Napier, 
the Master of Napier, the Lords Erskine and Fleming, 
Sir John Dalziel, and others of lesser note. Up the Yar- 
row they went, along its eastern side, over the Minch- 
Moor, — "a broad-based, wide-spreading, but short moun- 
tain-ridge, running north and south between the parishes 
of Yarrow and Traquair," — and onward north-westerly 
towards Peebles, near which stood Earl Traquair's castle. 
The Marquis paused there a moment, and inquired for the 
Earl, who was reported " not at home," though, according 
to Wishart, he was then and there within ; he, and his 
son. Lord Linton, who, with his troop of horse, had left 
the royal standard before the surprise at Philiphaugh. 
This Earl, some say, was a traitor, informing Leslie in 
these days, and misinforming Montrose : not unlikely. 
" The Earl of Traquair, the most versatile man in Scot- 
land," says Sir Philip Warwick, which is saying much, 
but hardly too much. He had been high in favor with 
King Charles — his Treasurer for Scotland, his Commis- 
sioner to Parliament. He came at last to be a common 
beggar on the streets of Edinburgh. 

At early morn, on the day after Philiphaugh, Montrose, 
having ridden hard, crossed the Clyde, and was joined 
then by the Earls of Airlie and Crawford, who had es- 
caped by another road, and brought with them two hun- 
dred horse. On the I7th, the Marquis was at the hill of 
Buchanty, in Glen-Almond, within twenty miles of Blair- 
Athole, and wrote there his 

" Orders for John Stewart, of Shierglass, and the rest of 
the country of Athole. 

James, Marquis of Montrose, his Majesty's Lieutenant, 
and Governor- General of the Kingdom of Scotland : 



298 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTKOSE. 

Whereas we did direct a former order unto you, for ap- 
prehending all such straggling Irish as you shall find within 
your country, and sending them home to the army, these 
be therefore again to will and command you that, immedi- 
ately after sight hereof, you take and apprehend all such 
straggling Irish as you shall find within your country, and 
send them fast bound to the army with a guard ; except 
such as have our warrant ; as you answer on the contrary 
at your highest peril. 

Given at our camp at Buchanty, the 19th of Septem- 
ber, 1645. Montrose." 

All such Irish — Irish who straggle about the country 
— shall be sent home to the army, where they shall be 
made to march straight, which is better. 

On the 2d of October, the Marquis, with such small 
force as he had gathered of Atholmen and straggling Irish, 
was at Comrie, near the head of Strathearn, whence, at 
that date, he issued orders : 

" For John Robertson, of Inver, Captain of the Castle 
of Blair-Athole. 

Whereas you did receive former orders from us for 
causing of Alexander and Neil Stewarts, brothers to John 
Stewart, of Innerchanocane, restore and deliver back such 
goods as they did take from Captain Rattray : these are 
therefore to will and command you, that immediately after 
sight hereof, you put the said orders to execution, and that 
you take particular notice to see the said goods restored ; 
as you will answer on the contrary. Montrose. 

You will receive from this bearer three hundred three- 
score balls ; and, as occasion shall off'er, your necessities 
shall be supplied. Meanwhile you will be doing what you 



A ROYALIST DEFEATED, BUT STKUGGLING. 299 

can, and be extremely careful of your prisoners, especially 
of Archibald Campbell." 

Be extremely careful of the prisoners, he says, espe- 
cially of this Campbell ; for by means of these he has 
some hope of saving the lives of other prisoners ; those, 
namely, which the Covenanters took at Philiphaugh, — 
the Earl of Hartfell, the Lords Drummond and Ogilvy, 
Sir Robert Spottiswood, Sir William RoUo, Sir Philip 
Nesbet, Sir Alexander Leslie of Auchintoul, William 
Murray brother to the Earl of Tullibardine, Alexander 
Ogilvy younger of Innerquharty, Colonel Nathaniel Gor- 
don, and Captain Andrew Guthrie. 

Five days after the date of the above letter, the Marquis 
was over the Grampians, and at Drimminer or Drumminor, 
(Castle Forbes) near the centre of Aberdeenshire, where 
Lord Aboyne, with twelve hundred foot and three hundred 
horse, joined him. Lord Lewis Gordon, too, came in to 
the army with a considerable body of horse ; and all these, 
when joined by the troops of the Earl of Airlie and 
Lord Erskine, who were recruiting in their own districts, 
would give the Captain- General of the King an army 
capable of operations in the Lowlands again. He, it ap- 
pears, had sent young Drummond of Balloch from Athole 
to the Marquis of Huntly, to make explanations to the 
jealous old Marquis, and propositions, too, probably, in 
regard to future courses ; and now, the Gordons having 
come in, Montrose writes : — 

" For my noble Lord, the Marquis of Huntly. 

Noble Loud : 

After my congratulations of your Lordship's happy 
arrival, I must acknowledge all your noble and affectionate 



300 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

expressions concerning his Majesty's service, told me by 
your son and Balloch ; as also your Lordship's favorable 
respects to myself, and the course you wish to be taken in 
business for hereafter. For what hath formerly passed, I 
hope those two have satisfied your Lordship in it ; and for 
times to come, I am absolutely resolved to observe the 
way you propose ; and in every thing, upon my honor, to 
witness myself as your son, and faithful servant. 

Montrose. 

Drumminor, 7th October, 1645." 

And now my Lord Marquis of Montrose had reason to 
hope that matters between him and the Gordons would go 
smoother than formerly ; but difficulties arose at the very 
outset. 

General David Leslie, after Montrose got into the High- 
lands, divided his force : remaining himself at or near 
Glasgow, with one part, he sent the other, under Major 
General Middleton, to the north, to overawe the Gordons, 
and to act otherwise, as need might be. With Middleton, 
at this time encamped at Turreff, in the north-west of 
Aberdeenshire, the Gordons, naturally enough, were de- 
sirous of dealing at once, before marching south, so that 
no enemy should be left near their homes. Montrose, on 
the contrary, was determined to march on Leslie at Glas- 
gow. He had, as we remember, proclaimed, from his 
camp at Bothwell, a Parliament to be held at Glasgow on 
the 20th of this October, and a victory over Leslie would 
enable him to hold it still ; but his main object was to 
save his friends, prisoners taken at Philiphaugh, ten of 
whom had been condemned to death. At a council of 
war, held at Drumminor, it was decided, Aboyne consent- 
ing, to march to Glasgow ; Montrose, I suppose, being of 



A KOYALIST DEFEATED, BUT STRUGGLING. 301 

opinion that Middleton would follow to support Leslie. 
Lord Lewis Gordon, however, with a large part of the 
cavalry, deserted the standard on the spot ; and, after one 
day's march with Montrose, Aboyne, with the rest of the 
Gordons, left him, and went to their homes. This Lord 
Lewis was a wild young man, rather loose in his notions 
of right and wrong. A scrap of old verse, which has 
somehow floated down from that time, has truth in it, and 
serves to mark a difference between him and Montrose : — 

•»If ye with Montrose gae, ye'll get sic and wae enough ; 
If ye with Lord Lewis gae, ye'll get rob and rave enough." 

Marching southward, Montrose lingered at the Castletou 
of Braemar, in hope, I suppose, of persuading the Gor- 
dons to return. Here he heard good news of some kind 
from his Captain of Blair, and wrote to him in reply : — 

Inver : 

I am glad of this good news. I am advanced thus far, 
and am, God willing, to be this night in Glenshee. 
Wherefore you will, immediately after sight hereof, con- 
vene the whole countrymen, and direct them to meet me 
towards Dunkeld, with all possible diligence. And let 
me be advertised what you can hear of Sir Alexander Mac- 
donald, or where he is ; and of all occurrences in the 
country, or what else intelligence you can learn. We 

rest, 

Montrose. 

Castleton of Braemar, 23d October, 1645. 

Marching then across the Grampians, he, on the 25th, 
dating at Loch Earn, writes again to the same corre- 
spondent : — 

26 



302 james graham, marquis of montrose. 

" Assured Friend : 

I have often willed you to keep those you have in hold 
in terms of prisoners. Always [but] for some particular 
causes which you shall know hereafter, these are to will 
and desire you, that, as you tender his Majesty's service 
my respect and favor, and all and whatsoever concern- 
ments, you, upon sight hereof, put those your prisoners in 
most strict fermance, without the least either manner or 
season of freedom whatsoever ; all sorts of pretences laid 
aside ; which most assuredly expecting, I am your loving 
friend, Montrose. 

You will, by all means, be careful that all the country 
people come out ; that none of them be suffered to stay, 
by no means, at home ; and if any struggle back, that 
strict notice be taken with them." 

The tone of this letter, so different from others to this 
Captain of his stronghold, is very remarkable ; it is one of 
entreaty, almost of supplication. He says : "I have often 
willed you to keep those you have in hold in terms of pris- 
oners ; " that is, as prisoners of war, who are entitled to 
all reasonable liberty and indulgence ; and he cannot bring 
himself to command his Captain to treat them otherwise, 
though there was surely good reason at this time for such 
command. He had now just heard of the executions at 
Glasgow: on the 21st of October, one of his most faith- 
ful followers, Sir William Rollo, was beheaded, and, on 
the 22d, Sir Philip Nesbit, and Ogilvy of Innerquharity, 
came to death in the same way. Colonel O'Kyan and 
Major Lachlin, officers of the Irish corps taken at Philip- 
haugh, suffered some time before at Edinburgh, having no 
friends to ask even for delay of execution. 

General Middleton, when he learned that the Royalists 



A ROYALIST DEFEATED, BUT STRUGGLING. 303 

had gone south, marched that way himself to join General 
Leslie ; for his special purpose was not war with the Gor- 
dons ; and the King's Captain- General, with such forces 
arrayed against him, while he, on his part, had only about 
twelve hundred foot and three hundred horse, could have 
no hope in contest in the Lowlands. In the latter days of 
October, however, when he was in Perthshire, there came 
to him good news brought by messengers from the King ; 
news that Lord Digby, with fifteen hundred horse, had 
been despatched, or would be, to meet him on the borders. 
The question with Montrose was then, how to get there 
himself; for Leslie, with his cavalry, was watchful. These 
same messengers, therefore. Captain Thomas Ogilvy and 
Captain Thomas Nesbit, he sent northward to Huntly 
with the news ; hoping, thereby, to bring out the Gordons. 
Meanwhile he, awaiting the return of the messengers, 
manoeuvred on the slopes of the Highlands, moving slowly 
towards Glasgow, and causing some alarm there. On the 
26th day of this October, Lord Digby, though defeated in 
action on the way, did actually get to Dumfries, in the 
south of Scotland, with the greater part of his force. But 
then, not knowing in what direction to advance farther 
into Scotland, nor how to get back into England, he at- 
tempted neither; " but in the highest despair that Lord" 
(Lord Digby) " Sir Marmaduke Langdale, the two Earls " 
(Carnwath and Nithsdale) "and most of the other offi- 
cers, embarked for the Isle of Man, and shortly after for 
Ireland ; all the troops being left to shift for themselves. 
Thus those fifteen hundred horse which marched north- 
ward, within very few days were brought to nothing, and 
the generalship of Lord Digby to an end." King Charles, 
when he heard of this result, was himself in circumstances 
well nigh desperate, and wrote, dating " Newark, 3d No- 
vember, 1645 : " — 



304 JAMES GEAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTEOSE. 

" Montrose : 

As it hath been none of my least afflictions, nor misfor- 
tunes, that you have hitherto had no assistance from me, 
so I conjure you to believe that nothing but impossibility 
hath been the cause of it ; witness my coming hither (not 
without some difficulty) being only for that end ; and when 
I saw that would not do, the parting with fifteen hundred 
horse, under the command of Digby, to send unto you." 

And so on, in hopeless strain ; for, indeed, the poor King 
could do little now, though he began to see how he could 
have done something before. 

The messengers, Ogilvy and Nesbit, returning from the 
north without the Gordons, Montrose sent another one, 
Sir John Dalziel, brother of the Earl of Carnwath, with a 
letter to Huntly, — a rather indignant letter, closing with 
a request to grant at least " the favor of a conference to 
the King's Governor." 

The Gordons would not come out with their horse ; nor 
Sir Alexander Macdonald with his Highlanders : he, spoiled 
by his new title, was no longer inclined to follow, but was 
bent on being a leader on his own account and risk in 
the far west. The King's Captain-General, therefore, see- 
ing no help elsewhere, turned to the men of Athole. On 
the 9th of November, he was at Kilmahog, near a pass 
into the Highlands — the pass of Leny, in the south of 
Perthshire — writing to his Captain of Blair. 

Inver : 

Having a purpose to take a settled and solid course 
through the whole kingdom, for levies in his Majesty's 
service, and being to repair to the country of Athole for 
that effect, — lest the country should be prejudged, either 
through our stay above a night or two, or in furnishings 



A KOYALIST DEFEATED, BUT STRUGGLING. 305 

and provisions, — these be therefore to will and command 
you, that immediately after sight hereof, you convene all 
the countrymen of Athole, to keep a rendezvous at the 
Blair of Athole, upon Friday next, the fourteenth of this 
instant, by nine o'clock in the morning ; that we take a 
settled and solid course by their own sights and advices, 
for a competent and proportional number to be kept upon 
service. Wherein you are to use exact diligence, that we 
be not obliged to stay over a night or two, nor the country 
troubled with furnishings and provisions. So we rest. 

Montrose. 

In this month of November, before or soon after the 
date of this letter, this much-vexed but uncomplaining 
man was in the home of his childhood, or near it. James 
Burns, baillie of Glasgow, addicted to making historical 
memoranda, jotted down this : " In November, 1645, Mon- 
trose's lady died : he came and buried her at Montrose, 
and was chased back again by Lieutenant-General Mid- 
dleton." The history of this lady, all that is now known 
of it, is very brief. Magdalene Carnegie, youngest daugh- 
ter of Sir David Carnegie, afterwards Earl of Southesk, 
married James Graham, Earl of Montrose, and bore to 
him four sons. On the 19th of April, 1645, David, Earl 
of Southesk, ordered so to do, appeared before the Com- 
mittee of Estates at Edinburgh, " and produced Robert 
Graham, son to the late Earl of Montrose, . . . and being 
demanded on what occasion he met with Montrose, and 
what passed betwixt them, he made a verbal declaration 
thereof." A declaration of tenor now unknown, but ap- 
parently satisfactory to the Committee; for, on the 21st 
of the same April, " The Committee of Estates ordains 
and allows the Earl of Southesk to deliver Robert Graham, 
26* 



306 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

son to the late Earl of Montrose, to Carnegie, 

his mother, to be kept and entertained by her ; and, being 
delivered to his mother, exoners the Earl of Southesk of 
him." In November, 1645, this lady died, and was buried 
at Montrose, or Kinnaird. Mr. Mark Napier, recording 
the fact that the Committee of Estates allowed this boy, 
Robert, to remain with his mother, is indignant with her, 
and thinks that she lived estranged from her husband, and 
had " sworn allegiance to the brethren," or Covenanters ; 
but there is slight ground for such conclusion. The Com- 
mittee of Estates knew that the eldest son of this mother 
had died shortly before at Gordon Castle ; that the second 
son, James, was then in prison at Edinburgh; and that 
there remained now to the mother only two sons, this Rob- 
ert and little David. Southesk, too, had just made a dec- 
laration in regard to " what passed betwixt" himself and 
Montrose, which was apparently satisfactory ; and this 
Committee of Estates, not without something human in it, 
took pity on the bereaved mother. Her husband, at some 
risk to himself, came and buried her when she died ; and 
we will think of her as a good, quiet woman, mindful of 
her own household, especially mindful of the boys in it ; 
a woman of the kind called motherly, which is a very 
good kind. 

In this month of November, too, died Archibald, Lord 
Napier. This old Lord, about seventy, had been broken 
down by the hard ride from Philiphaugh, and had since 
lain sick at Fincastle, on the Garry, where he died. His 
daughter Margaret, wife of Stirling of Keir, came into 
the hills, and smoothed the pillow of the good old father ; 
reminding him of that other Margaret, her mother, " a 
woman religious, chaste, and beautiful ; " who had been 
his " chief joy in this world." Montrose came and buried 



A ROYALIST DEFEATED, BUT STRUGGLING. 307 

him too, at the Kirk of Blair. The friendship of these 
men, beginning in the boyhood of Montrose, and continu- 
ing without interruption till the death of Napier, is note- 
worthy ; one of them young, ardent, daring ; the other old, 
peaceful, considerate : a beautiful friendship, like that of 
Mentor and the son of Ulysses. 

The world of the Covenanters was all against Montrose, 
and no man in Scotland was so maligned as he ; those who 
knew him thoroughly, and loved him, died, or were shut 
close in prisons ; but he fared onward as he could. 

The messengers to Huntly having failed to effect the 
purpose of their mission, the Graham, determined, if pos- 
sible, to get the conference he had asked, and see what 
could be done so, led his scanty army, in December, 
through the mountain snows into the country of the Gor- 
dons. The old chief of them, being absent from his 
Castle of Strathbogie, — purposely absent, says Wishart, to 
avoid his visitor, — Montrose, leaving his army encamped 
there, started at nightfall with a small body-guard of 
horse, and, at early morn, arrived at Huntly's other castle, 
in the Bog of Gight, near the mouths of the Spey. Here 
the two loyalists — one of the active kind, the other of 
the passive — had their conference ; and in it, Montrose, 
whose personal influence was great, prevailed; Huntly 
promising to cooperate with his Gordons. 

The King's Captain-General had, at this time, under 
arms about one thousand men, two hundred of them 
horse ; while Huntly, King's Lieutenant in the north, had 
double that number, six hundred being horse ; and the 
plan of operations was this : by persuasion, or force, to 
bring in the Earl of Seaforth and his Mackenzies ; then, 
by siege or otherwise, to get possession of the city of In- 
verness ; and then, leaving no powerful enemy behind 



308 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

them, to proceed in the conquest of the Lowlands. But 
Huntly delayed, besieging Lethin Castle belonging to the 
Laird of Brodie, and little was done. In these months of 
December and January there was correspondence by let- 
ters between the chiefs — correspondence by letters which 
is in part known to us, intercourse otherwise entirely 
unknown. Montrose dates " Kinnermony, December 23d, 
1645," and "Advie, Dec. 29th;" both places on the 
Spey; letters of conciliatory kind, but not of much in- 
terest. Again he writes to Huntly, on the last day of 
the year, from " Balla Castle," or Castle Grant, a letter 
relating to the Earl of Seaforth, who, as the Laird of 
Glengarry reports, has agreed to join the Royalists ; and 
he, Montrose, asks Huntly's "judgment anent the delay" 
in proceedings against him. " For," he says, " if Seaforth 
be really come in, it shall hold us in much time and pains ; 
if not, he is not able to stand our advance. But if he be 
willing, it is better he come in at the slap to us, than that 
we should go over the dike to him." On the tenth day of 
the new year, my Lord Marquis, grown very impatient, 
thinks it best to go over the dike, and writes, dating at 
Strathspey : "It being necessary we should now take the 
opportunity of the season, and employ the time that so 
favorably ofFereth unto us, I have directed this bearer to 
acquaint your Lordship with my thoughts of the business, 
and to know your Lordship's own opinion ; for it concerns 
us now really to fall to work." And, two days later, he 
writes about one Colonel Hay, who promised " to use his 
own endeavors, in an indirect way," with Seaforth; " and 
that he would work wonders : but I find no effect earthly 
from it ; which must make us the rather to hold our old 
grounds." 

Other letters in this month of January show that nego- 



A KOYALIST DEFEATED, BUT STKTJGGLING. 309 

tiations continued with the Earl of Seaforth, without much 
besides promises for result. This Earl, who had large pos- 
sessions in the north, his lands stretching forth to the sea, 
believed in the Scotch fisher-saying. Keep your ain Jish- 
guts to your ain sea-maws^ and therefore trimmed his 
sails always to the prevailing wind. Before the battle of 
Inverlochy he was in arms for the Covenant ; after it he 
signed a bond with the victor for the maintenance of the 
King's cause. At the battle of Aulderne he stood and 
fought against the King's Lieutenant, and got defeat as 
he deserved. This Earl, apparently changeful, but really 
constant to one thing, was now negotiating, promising, 
watching the winds ; and Montrose at times showed impa- 
tience. Huntly, however, busy with his siege of Brodie's 
Castle of Lethin, was in no haste ; for indeed he was not 
inclined to place his Gordons under the standard of Mon- 
trose, who, as Captain-General, would of right command 
the whole. Huntly, King's Lieutenant in the north, 
thought it, perhaps, his special duty to stay there, with his 
Gordons, for defence of it against the King's enemies, in- 
stead of marching for conquest. The man, too, was old ; 
and the old are timid and conservative : we will blame 
him, therefore, only for this, that he did not speak out 
and say what he would or would not do, so that Mon- 
trose could have shaped his own course accordingly. To 
him this time of inaction must have been irksome and 
painful, for old friends, then under trial, were in danger ; 
and some of them were soon shorn away : on the 20th of 
this January, 1645, Sir Robert Spottiswood, Colonel Na- 
thaniel Gordon, and Captain Andrew Guthrie, taken at 
Philiphaugh, were beheaded at St. Andrews. Assemblies 
of the Kirk, Synods, Presbyteries, had petitioned Parlia- 
ment to have justice done " on those persons now in 



310 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

bonds." All ministers of the Kirk, or the most of them, 
preached and prayed for the execution of these men, guilty 
of the worst of sins — sin of opposition to the only true 
church. Their beloved church, through long years, had 
been in danger of extinction : opposition and irritation, 
fear and trouble, long continued, had made these men 
fanatics. They mistook a part of God's kingdom for the 
whole of it ; as we all, to some extent, do ; and therefore 
their standard of judgment was a false one. 

The common Irish soldiers, thrown into prisons, had 
been " executed without any assize or process : " other 
prisoners had trial, and judgment for cause shown ; but 
the case of Sir Robert Spottiswood had been a difficult 
one, for he had not borne arms against the Covenanters. 
Some of his judges, therefore, inclined to mercy ; but he 
had been a firm friend to Montrose, which in itself was 
crime enough ; and he therefore had to go with the rest. 
On the eve of his execution he wrote as follows : — 

" For the Lord Marquis of Montrose his Excellence. 

My noble Lord : 

You will be pleased to accept this last tribute of my 
service ; this people having condemned me to die for my 
loyalty to his Majesty, and the respect I am known to carry 
towards your Excellence, which, I believe hath been the 
greater cause, of the two, of my undoing. Always [but] 
I hope, by the assistance of God's grace, to do more good 
to the King's cause, and to the advancement of the service 
your Excellence hath in hand, by my death, than per- 
haps otherwise I could have done being living. For, not- 
withstanding all the rubs and discouragements I perceive 
your Excellence hath had of late, I hope you will not be 
disheartened to go on, and crown that work you did so 



A ROYALIST DEFEATED, BUT STRUGGLING. 311 

gloriously begin, and had achieved so happily, if you had 
not been deserted in the nick. In the end God will surely 
set up again his own anointed ; and, as I have been con- 
fident from the beginning, make your Excellence a prime 
instrument of it. One thing I must humbly recommend 
to your Excellence ; that, as you have done always hith- 
erto, so you will continue by fair and gentle carriage to 
gain the People's aflfection to their Prince, rather than to 
imitate the barbarous inhumanity of your adversaries, 
although they give your Excellence too great provocations 
to follow their example. Now for my last request. In 
hope that the poor service I could do hath been acceptable 
to your Excellence, let me be bold to recommend the care 
of my orphans to you ; that when God shall be pleased to 
settle his Majesty in peace, your Excellence will be a re- 
membrancer to him in their behalf, as also in behalf of my 
brother's house, that hath been, and is, mightily oppressed 
for the same respect. Thus, being forced to part with 
your Excellence, as I have lived so I die, your Excellency's 
most humble and faithful servant, 

Ro. Spottiswoode." 

This friend, evidently a good man, had gone ; Colonel 
Nathaniel Gordon, who had been constant throughout, 
had been shorn away, and Sir William RoUo ; old friends, 
in one way and another, had gone, or were going, and 
there could be little hope of new ones ; for the State and 
the Kirk of Scotland, representing this world and the next, 
pronounced death here, and condemnation hereafter, on 
every adherent of that monster of iniquity, James Gra- 
ham, Marquis of Montrose. He, however, who said, 
before the anathema fell on himself, " Excommunication 
doth not yet loose the bands of nature," stood at all times, 



312 JAMES GKAHAM, MAEQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

even to the last, on his manhood — a foundation approved 
by the Maker of men. 

The Castle of Blair- Athole, which Montrose took pos- 
session of at the commencement of his war in Scotland, 
he held to the close of it. The Captain of this strong- 
hold, Robertson of Inver, though a good custodian, keep- 
ing it and its contents faithfully, was, it appears, not a good 
correspondent ; and the Marquis complained of him often 
for negligence in this respect. On the 8th of February, 
dating at Kylochy, which is in the valley of the Findhorn, 
near Inverness, he says to this Captain, " I wonder where- 
fore I have not heard from you this long time by-past ; 
having sent you frequent advertisements, and you having 
daily occasions ; " and on the same day, his secretary. 
Master James Kennedy, writes : — 

" Sir : 

I cannot but advertise you, that I have not seen the 
Marquis of Montrose so discontent since ever I knew him, 
as he is presently with your and others' negligence in 
Athole. in not acquainting him, these six weeks by-past, 
with the state and condition of matters there ; albeit he 
hath written to you often formerly. Wherefore you will 
do well for yourselves to post back an express bearer, with 
all possible diligence, and to acquaint him with all occur- 
rents in your country or elsewhere ; and to write your 
own excuse for so long delaying. As for occurrents here, 
we be in good hope that Seaforth, Sir James Macdonald, 
and Macleod, shall join to the King's forces in all haste. 
For they have given all assurances, both by word and writ, 
that can be asked. They are to have a rendezvous of all 
their forces on Wednesday next in Ross, within fourteen 
miles of this country, and thereafter to come along to my 



A BOYALIST DEFEATED, BUT STRUGGLING. 313 

Lord Marquis. The Marquis of Huntly doth still lie be- 
sieging the House of Lethin in Moray, which we be confi- 
dent he shall gain this week." . . And so on, signing at 
last, Master J. Kennedy. 

Master Kennedy had been with the Marquis since the 
battle of Aberdeen, acting as his secretary, and had, there- 
fore, seen much of him ; but he had never seen him show 
so much discontent at any time as now with the negligence 
of this Captain of Blair. The man Master Kennedy 
served was, indeed, not often discomposed. Sir Robert 
Spottiswood, too, speaking of the desertions and discour- 
agements after the battle of Kilsythe, said, as we remem- 
ber, that they had little efi'ect on the Marquis, " whom 
nothing of this kind can amaze." 

One of the inquiries made of the Captain had doubtless 
been in regard to Coll Keitache, who, since he got the 
title of Sir Alexander Macdonald, had been acting on his 
own account in the far west : little inclined himself to take 
a subordinate place again, he had been held back from it 
too by the Earl, or Marquis, of Antrim, who had got 
mixed up in the distracted affairs of Ireland, and had 
fallen into doubtful or traitorous ways. Another inquiry 
had been made, I suppose, about the Atholmen who were 
at this time slow to come out. Early in this month of Feb- 
ruary, however, about eight hundred of them got together, 
and, under Patrick Graham (Black Pate) and Drummond 
of Balloch, they marched into Menteith, where the Mar- 
quis of Argyle had quartered a thousand or more of his 
Campbells on the lands of Lord Napier. On the 13th of 
that month there was battle, with defeat to the Campbells ; 
and then the Atholmen, marching northward, joined Mon- 
trose. He, then on the coast at Petty, between In- 

27 



314 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

verness and Campbelltown, wrote on the 15th of March to 
Lord Aboyne ; and, after saying that a verbal message he 
had received from his Lordship was not intelligible, he 
said: " I have desired the bearer hereof, Sir John Hurry, 
to wait upon your Lordship, that I may be more fully 
informed of the course." The verbal message had some 
reference to fighting the enemy ; and " your Lordship 
knows it is three or four months since I desired the same 
very earnestly ; " " neither is there any thing in the world 
I so much passion;" "wherefore my earnest desire to 
your Lordship is, that you will be pleased to let me know 
your strength, and what forces you can assure me of." 
Lord Aboyne's answer to this letter begins thus : " My 
Lord, the truth is, I several times have heard there was 
much suspicion of scruple betwixt your Lordship and my 
father (the Marquis of Huntly) anent the carriage of his 
Majesty's service." This letter, which is flippant and in 
rather mocking tone, did not, I think, give any satisfactory 
answer to the letter borne by Sir John Hurry, This Sir 
John is the same man that got a defeat at Aulderne here 
in the north some time ago, and, escaping with one hun- 
dred horse, joined General Baillie. Before the battle of 
Alford he left the Covenanters, " pretending indisposi- 
tion," says General Baillie, between w^hom and Hurry 
there had been little good wall at any time. Sir John was 
one of that much-abused class of men called Soldiers of 
Fortune ; which class, however, is not worse than some 
other classes that are less abused. He, " a tall, robust 
fellow, with a deep scar on his cheek," came over to the 
Royalists some day in this winter, and was welcome, no 
doubt, to the leader of them, w^ho had use for him. 

The next day after Montrose wrote the said letter to 
Aboyne his Castle of Kincardine was burned to the 



A ROYALIST DEFEATED, BUT STRUGGLING. 315 

ground — burned, all of it that would burn, for there was 
stone in its walls. The young Lord Napier, with about 
fifty men, had, in the beginning of March, 1646, occupied 
and fortified it, " intending to organize some protection for 
his own and his uncle's estates ; " or with some other in- 
tent. Thereupon General Middleton besieged the castle 
and battered it with cannon. After fourteen days' defence, 
water ceased to flow into the castle well ; and young Na- 
pier, with a companion, mounted in dark night at a postern 
gate : moving at first slowly and stealthily, they spurred at 
the right moment and escaped — escaped so or somehow. 
Next day there was capitulation ; men were shot at a post ; 
and shepherds on the Ochil Hills saw smoke and flame 
break forth from the old home of the Grahams. Perhaps 
Lord Napier, lingering on the opposite side of Strathearn, 
where hills rise by degrees till they become Grampians, or 
rugged mountains, himself saw the castle fall ; and so 
could tell the whole story to his uncle Montrose, when he 
came to him in the north, where negotiations and prepara- 
tions for action were still going on. 

What might, could, would, or should have been the 
result of all this negotiating and manoeuvring, if it had 
gone forward to any, would be a useless inquiry. The 
plan of Montrose for a second campaign in Scotland was a 
good one. He had learned that though he could conquer 
on the battle-field with such armies as he led before, yet 
the fair fruits of victory escaped him : conquering Scot- 
land with such armies, he could not hold it ; for his armies 
had melted away after every victory, and he, though victor, 
had to take refuge in the hills, and fly to and fro there till 
his wayward Redshanks would gather again. He had now, 
therefore, " a purpose to take a settled and solid course 
through the whole kingdom for levies in his Majesty's 



316 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTKOSE. 

service," and was trying to unite the north for a beginning. 
But, as we have seen, he made slow work of it ; all men, 
or almost all, having lost faith in King Charles's might, 
whatever they thought of his hereditary right. Schemes 
for service of this King, wise or unwise, were now upset by 
himself; and his Captain-General of Scotland, on one of 
the latter days of May, received a letter which he read 
with astonishment : — 

MONTEOSE : 

I am in such a condition as is much fitter for relation 
than writing ; wherefore I refer you to this trusty bearer, 
Robert Car, for the reasons of my coming to this army ; as 
also what my treatment hath been since I came, and my 
resolutions upon my whole business. This shall, there- 
fore, only give you positive commands, and tell you real 
truths, leaving the why of all this to this bearer. You must 
disband your forces and go into France, where you shall 
receive my further directions. This at first may justly 
startle you ; but I assure you that if, for the present, I 
should off'er to do more for you, I could not do so much ; 
and that you shall always find me your most assured, con- 
stant, real, and faithful friend. 

Charles II . 

Newcastle, May 19, 1646. 

Robert Car, the bearer of this letter, told a story to his 
astonished auditor much like that now in the history-books, 
I suppose : How the King, finding his aff'airs going con- 
tinually from *bad to worse, saw no hope but in causing 
divisions among his opponents ; how, therefore, in the be- 
ginning of May, he got oiit^'Of Oxford in disguise, and 
rode northward, through obscure ways, to the Scottish 
*camp before Newark ; how he had hoped thereby to widen 



A KOYALIST DEFEATED, BUT STRUGGLING. 317 

the difference already existing between Scotch Presbyte- 
rians and their English brethren, Independents and other ; 
and so get his kingdom again. Of the King's treatment 
since he came to the Scotch Presbyterian army, the mes- 
senger made no favorable report ; and his Majesty's reso- 
lutions upon his "whole business" may be guessed at by 
those who like unprofitable work. Whatever story Mon- 
trose heard from Robert Car, or Ker, he sent this answer 
to the King : — 

May it please your sacred Majesty : 

I received your Majesty's [letter] by this bearer, Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Ker, carrying your Majesty's, being at 
Newcastle ; together with your Majesty's pleasure for dis- 
banding of all forces, and my own repair abroad. For the 
first, I shall not presume to canvass, but humbly acquiesce 
in your Majesty's resolutions. As for that of present dis- 
banding, I am likewise, in all humility, to render obedience, 
as never having had, nor having any thing earthly before 
my eyes, but your Majesty's service ; as all my carriages 
have hitherto, and shall at this time, witness : only, I must 
humbly beg your Majesty to be pleased to consider, that 
there is nothing remembered concerning the immunity of 
those who have been upon your service ; that all deeds in 
their prejudice be reduced, and those of them who stay at 
home enjoy their lives and properties without being ques- 
tioned ; for such as go abroad, that they have all freedom 
of transport ; and also that all prisoners be released ; so 
that no characters of what has happened remain. For, 
when all is done that we can, I am much afraid that it 
shall trouble both those there with your Majesty, and all 
your servants here, to quit these parts ; and as for my own 
leaving this kingdom, I shall, in all humility and obedience, 
27* 



318 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

endeavor to perform your Majesty's command ; wishing, 
rather than any should make pretext of me, never to see 
it again with mine eyes ; willing, as well by passion as 
action, to witness myself your Majesty's most humble, and 
most faithful, subject and servant, 

Montrose. 

Strathspey, 2d June, 1646. 

Wishart says that Montrose also wrote, privately, by 
another messenger, entreating his Majesty to inform him 
to what extent he was acting under compulsion, and assur- 
ing him that he would sacrifice himself in his cause. 
Crossing the Grampians, and coming into Glenshee at the 
north-east extremity of Perthshire, the Marquis, dating 
there, June 10, -svrote to Donald Robertson in Athole : — 

Assured Friend : 

Being informed that you have presently all your regi- 
ment in readiness at an head, these are therefore to will 
you, immediately after sight hereof, to repair to us with all 
possible diligence ; till when I remit all other particulars, 
and continue your assured friend, 

Montrose. 

On the 15th of June the King wrote again, from New- 
castle, a letter full of expressions of gratitude and assur- 
ances of esteem ; and after saying that he had done all 
he could for Montrose and other friends, he added: "I 
renew my former directions of laying down arms unto 
you ; desiring you to let Huntly, Crawford, Airlie, Seaforth, 
and Ogilvy know that want of time hath made me now 
omit to reiterate my former commands to them, intending 
this shall serve for all." 

The leading Covenanters, or the Committee of Estates, 
sent, about this time, written conditions of surrender to 



A KOYALIST DEFEATED, BUT STRUGGLING. 319 

Montrose, and he replied, " that as he had taken up arms 
under the commission and by the desire of his Majesty, 
he would receive conditions for laying them down from no 
mortal but the King himself." His Majesty then wrote 
again, "Newcastle, 16th July," and said: "I have told 
this bearer, Robert Car, and the Commissioners here, that 
I have commanded you to accept of Middleton's conditions, 
which really I judge to be your best course." *' That you 
may make the clearer judgment what to do, I have sent 
you here enclosed the Chancellor's answers to your de- 
mands ; wherefore, if you think it fit to accept, you may 
justly say I have commanded you ; and if you take an- 
other course, you cannot expect that I can publicly avow 
you in it ; " " but on the contrary must seem to be not 
well satisfied with your refusal, which I find clearly will 
bring all this army upon you." The poor King signed 
" Charles R." still, but the R. had little meaning. 

Middleton, coming to off'er conditions, was John Mid- 
dleton, who served as Major under Montrose at the storm- 
ing of the bridge of Dee, in 1639; he had risen since, 
and had become General, commanding for the Covenanters 
in Scotland. He had some respect for his former com- 
mander, and the two men met on the banks of the Isla, 
on the confines of Perthshire and Forfarshire, courteously, 
as soldiers are wont to meet on such occasions. After 
two hours' conference, on a haugh, or plain by the river- 
side, they agreed on terms : James Graham, Marquis of 
Montrose ; Ludovic, Earl of Crawford ; and Sir John Hurry, 
to have safe transportation beyond sea, provided they 
sailed before the 1st of September; but no pardon or 
other favor. All other friends or followers of the Marquis 
were to have pardon and possession of their estates. 

This agreement made and signed, Montrose, on the 30th 



320 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

of July, at Rattray, in Perthshire, on the edge of the 
Highlands, took leave of his little army, consisting mainly 
of Atholmen and Ogilvies ; — a sorrowful parting to 
some of them who had been faithful from the beginning 
through all vicissitudes. After this parting, the chief of 
the Grahams, accompanied only by Sir John Hurry, went 
to his house of Old Montrose ; and the days allowed to 
him in Scotland were used, doubtless, in arrangement of 
his private affairs. His eldest living son, James, who had 
been in keeping of the Covenanters in Edinburgh Castle 
or elsewhere, was released at this time, or soon after, and 
went abroad. His other sons, Robert and David, under 
care of grandfather Southesk, were probably at Kinnaird, 
near Old Montrose. Dependants of the house, old ser- 
vants and others, had to be cared for ; and the Marquis, 
leaving all for unknown term of time, was, I suppose, 
busy enough in that month of August, 1646; busy, not 
only in his own private affairs, but also, it is said, in 
arrangements for another attempt to help King Charles to 
his throne. 

That Montrose was at this time doing, or trying to do, 
something for his Majesty, appears by a letter dated 
"Newcastle, 21st August, 1646." 

*' Montrose : 

" In all kinds of fortune you find a way more and more to 
oblige me ; and it is none of my least misfortunes, that all 
this time I can only return to you verbal repayment." 

And so on, referring for more interesting particulars to the 
" bearer Robert Car." In a postscript the King says : 
" Defer your going beyond seas as long as you may with- 
out breaking your word." For indeed, the chapter of 
chances, always a large one with this King, might yet 
have something good in it. 



A KOYALIST DEFEATED, BUT STKUGGLING. 321 

The Committee of Estates had promised to provide a 
ship for conveyance of the exiles beyond sea, but she did 
not arrive in the harbor of Montrose till the last day of 
August ; and the captain of it said then that he could not 
be ready to sail thence for some days. " Ugly looking 
sailors in this ship," says Dr. Wishart, " the whole thing 
planned and arranged by the Covenanters so that they 
could have a pretext for seizing the Marquis, when his 
term of time in Scotland expired ; " but the Doctor had 
been in danger of death by rats in a prison provided for 
him by these Covenanters ; and his recollection of fright- 
ful night-watches there probably warped his judgment of 
them, not only in this matter but in other matters too. 
It appears, however, that Montrose himself was apprehen- 
sive of treachery on this occasion, and had some reason 
for apprehension ; for the Kirk, discontent with the terms 
granted by Middleton, had already excommunicated the 
Earl of Airlie, the Grahams of Inchbrakie and Gorthie, 
and others whom the State had pardoned. The Marquis, 
therefore, had provided other means of conveyance foT 
himself and friends. On the northern coast, twenty miles 
or so from Montrose harbor, a small vessel was found in 
the harbor of Stonehaven, bound for Bergen, in Norway ; 
and in it embarked Sir John Hurry, Drummond of Bal- 
loch, John Spottiswood, nephew of Sir Robert, Henry 
Graham, Dr. George Wishart, and some old servants of 
Montrose ; and on the 3d of September, the vessel set 
sail. At night of the same day, " the Reverend James 
Wood, a very worthy clergyman," attended by a man ap- 
parently his servant, took a small boat at the western shore 
of the Montrose basin, and rowing out of the harbor's 
narrow mouth, where the island of Inchbraycock lies in 
mid-stream, they, the clergyman and his servant, entered a 



322 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OP MONTROSE. 

wherry, or decked fisher-boat, that lay at anchor outside. 
So James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, who, in August, 
1644, got into Scotland in the disguise of a serving-man, 
had now, after two eventful years, to escape from it in the 
same way. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A ROYALIST IN EXILE. 

Montrose, taking boat with the Reverend James Wood, 
got probably, when out of harbor, on board that vessel in 
which his friends sailed from Stonehaven ; for he arrived, it 
appears, at Bergen, in Norway, before the end of Septem- 
ber. Thence, crossing the country to Christiana, he em- 
barked for Denmark, intending to ascertain there what his 
Majesty, Christian the Fifth, would do towards reinstating 
his nephew, Charles Stuart, on his throne. Anne of Den- 
mark, wife of James Sixth of Scotland, First of England, 
was sister of this Christian ; and he, therefore, it was 
hoped, would be willing to lend a helping hand to her 
unfortunate son. But this King was not at home, being 
then in Germany ; and Montrose, therefore, journeyed on 
by sea or land, till he came to Hamburg, where he abode 
till February of the next year, 1647, waiting what might 
befall King Charles ; waiting also for advices from his 
Queen, Henrietta, who was then in Paris. The Earl of 
Crawford, one of the three royalists exiled by the Cov- 
enanters, left Scotland before Montrose, bearing a message 
from him to the Queen, Crawford, arriving at Paris early 
in October, 1646, made propositions to her Majesty, in 



A ROYALIST IN EXILE. 323 

behalf of Montrose and others, to raise an army in the 
Highlands of Scotland, provided Irish troops and money- 
could be supplied by her Majesty, or otherwise. Lords 
Jermyn and Colepepper, the Queen's counsellors, writing 
to King Charles on the 19th of October, give an account 
of these propositions, and say : " Their quarrel is to be to 
free your Majesty from imprisonment. For they take you 
to be under restraint, and no better than a prisoner ; " and 
they say, furthermore, that the Queen had sent a messen- 
ger to the Highlands, requesting loyalists there to delay 
proceedings till she could learn in what condition his 
Majesty's person and affairs really were ; and in this her 
Majesty was, I think, not far from right. 

Montrose, as we said, remained in Hamburg till Feb- 
ruary, 1647, waiting there inactive; for he who had laid 
down arms at the King's command would not take them 
up again to war against his countrymen without the sanc- 
tion of the actual sovereign of Scotland ; and now, when 
the King was in durance, he required the commands of 
the Queen. She, waiting to know in what condition his 
Majesty's person and affairs were, learned at last. On the 
2d of January, 1647, King writes to Queen : — 

Deak Heart : 

I must tell thee, that now I am declared, what I have 
really been ever since I came to this army — a prisoner ; 
for the Governor [of Newcastle] told me some four days 
since that he was commanded to secure me, lest I should 
make an escape ; the difference being only this, that here- 
tofore my escape was easy enough, but now it is difficult, 
if not impossible. 

The difference, which was " only this," had more mean- 
ing in it than Charles then knew; for the Scotch Cov- 



324 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

enanters were at that time negotiating with the English 
Parliament, selling the King, some say ; but it was not 
quite so. When Charles threw himself into the hands of 
these Scotch Presbyterians, they did not well know what 
to do with him. He would not be King for the Kirk, 
doing its bidding ; and they would not make him King 
over the Kirk : the English demanded him, and, if he was 
to be prisoner at all, they had the best right to hold him : 
a dispute for his person, continued long, would issue in 
open quarrel. The Scotch, therefore, after long consid- 
eration, concluded to hand him over to the English ; and 
took occasion to get then a debt due to them from the 
English Parliament : many have therefore said that the 
Scots sold their King ; and Montrose, for one, believed 
the fact to be really so. This transaction, and other trans- 
actions of that time, are important to us here only in so 
far as they have connection with the life of Montrose ; 
and our business with them shall be mainly this — to learn 
what he knew of them, and to indicate how they affected 
him : but for this our materials are meagre. Few of the 
letters written by him are now extant, having been for 
the most part, I guess, destroyed by those who received 
them ; for correspondence with this outlawed and excom- 
municated man was dangerous. We can therefore read 
only letters, or extracts from letters, written to him, and 
these are so guarded in expression, that they help us little. 
Thus the King, writing to Montrose from Newcastle under 
date January 21, 1647, says : " I think not fit to write but 
what I care not though all the world read it ; " neverthe- 
less, the King had something to say to him, for he adds 
this farther on in his letter : " I refer you to this trusty 
bearer for the knowledge of my present condition, which 
is such that all the directions I am able to give you is, to 



A KOYALIST IN EXILE. 325 

dispose of yourself as my wife shall advise you ; knowing 
that she truly esteems your worth ; " and so on till he 
comes to " Charles E,." 

The King's wife was, it seems, in no haste to give 
directions; she, who had had the propositions made to 
her in October by the Earl of Crawford in hand four 
months, wrote under date Paris, 5th February, 1647 : — 

Cousin : 

I am very happy to have opportunity to write to you in the 
mean time, till I can inform you more at large in relation 
to the proposition made to me by my Lord Crawford, on 
your part, and that of several good servants of the King 
in the Highlands of Scotland, of which I approve ex- 
tremely ; and, as I hold it to be advantageous for the 
King's service, I shall do all I can to forward its perform- 
ance. Next week [her Majesty proposes to give] more 
particulars ; [and, after some French compliments, she 
subscribes,] Your very good and affectionate cousin and 
friend, — Henkietta Maria. 

Next week, on the 12th of the same month, the Queen, 
according to promise, did write again, and said: " I have 
commanded Jermyn to write to you more fully ; " and this 
bearer to tell you, moreover, " what I cannot venture to 
commit to writing." But Lord Jermyn, more intent on 
keeping his own place near the Queen than on helping 
her husband to a place there, did not, I think, write very 
fully or explicitly ; and there was little hope of money, or 
of troops from Ireland. 

The " trusty bearer," to whom the poor King referred 
Montrose for information, doubtless gave some that was 
interesting ; for his Majesty, when he sent off that bearer 
28 



326 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

on the 21st of January, knew that he was about to pass 
from the hands of the Scots into those of the English ; 
and as soon as Montrose learned the fact, he left Hamburg 
and journeyed towards Paris ; hoping that the Queen 
tvould then be more disposed to lend, in some way, a help- 
ing hand. On the way, when in Flanders, he met a mes- 
senger bearing another letter from her Majesty, which, full 
of compliments, contained one sentence that seemed to 
have meaning in it : "I have charged Ashburnham to 
speak to you more particularly of something for the service 
of the King." But this something proved to be only a 
proposition that he should go to Scotland and battle for 
the King " entirely upon his own credit and resources." 
This Montrose declined to do ; and said, in substance, that 
war for the King, in the King's dominions, must have 
countenance and support from the King himself, or from 
his Queen. Going forward, therefore, to Paris, he got 
audience of the Queen, and urged his suit for countenance 
and support ; but she, doubtful, uncertain, and in want 
of means for more pressing needs than a kingdom, only 
perplexed him *' with various and contradictory senti- 
ments." And so, in uncertainties and perplexities intol- 
erable to a man of action, the winter months wore away ; 
the spring came and went ; till in summer he received a 
letter from King Charles, and learned from the bearer of 
it very interesting news. The letter ran as follows : — 

Montrose : 

When ye shall truly know my present condition, ye will 
rather wonder that I have received and answered yours, 
than that this bearer, the last time, went empty from me. 
But not being confident of the safe delivery of this, nor 
having any cypher with you, I think not fit to write freely 



A EOYALIST IN EXILE. 327 

unto you. Therefore I desire you to take directions from 
my wife what ye are to do : and be confident that no time, 
place, or condition, shall make me other than your most 
assured, real, faithful, constant friend. Charles R. 

I thank you for the sword ye sent me. Commend me 
to all my friends that are with you. 

This letter is dated '' Newmarket, 19th of June, 1647;" 
the writer of it being then on his way to Hampton Court. 
For four months his Majesty, held by the Parliament, had 
been at Holdenby in the county of Northampton ; but on 
the 3d of June he fell into other hands. Troubles in Eng- 
land, long confused, and of uncertain issue, gradually 
cleared and became simpler ; and the vital principle of 
Protestantism found its ablest representative in Oliver 
Cromwell. Episcopacy should not rule the conscience of 
man, nor Presbytery ; churches should be only means to a 
higher life : and towards the establishment of that princi- 
ple, the Cavalier Montrose was to some extent, though 
unconsciously, a co-worker with the Puritan Cromwell. 
But no man then living could foresee the issue of those 
troubles ; for the real meaning of events as they arise, is 
hidden from the wisest : but the event which the bearer 
of that letter from the King made known to Montrose, 
was, as I said, an interesting one ; especially interesting 
to him. His gracious master, King Charles, had been, on 
the 3d of June, 1647, seized at Holdenby by " one Joice," 
and carried to Hampton Court ; and he was then no longer 
in keeping of England's Parliament, but in the hands of her 
Puritan army. Montrose heard too from the said bearer, 
or in some other way, soon after, that the King liked his 
new keepers better than his old. He lived in some state 
at Hampton Court ; had his own chaplain ; saw his chil- 



328 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

dren ; and there was talk that the King would soon have 
his own again. Montrose heard some report of this talk, 
it seems ; for in a letter addressed to his nephew, Sir 
George Stirling of Keir, then in Holland, and dated " Near 
Paris, 26th of July, 1647," he says: "If matters stand 
with the King as we are made to understand, or if it please 
God they go well with myself any other where, I hope you 
shall not need think upon yourself, but leave me to do it. 
As for that which you spoke long ago concerning Lilias, I 
have been thinking, but to no purpose ; for there is neither 
Scotsman nor woman welcome that way ; neither would 
any of honour and virtue, chiefly a woman, suffer them- 
selves to live in so lewd and worthless a place. So you 
may satisfy that person, and divert her mind resolutely 
from it." 

Lilias was his niece, Lilias Napier ; who certainly did 
not find herself pleasantly situated in Scotland at that time ; 
the family had been impoverished by fines, and by wasting 
of its estates : all Covenanters shunned its society : and 
Lilias, therefore, had expressed some desire for a place 
abroad; in the Queen's household, probably. But her 
uncle, Montrose, living then himself *' near Paris," apart 
from the Queen's household, did not think it well for a 
young lady to live in such a place ; which, according to 
other accounts of it, was not one of the best. Henrietta, 
too intimate with Lord Jermyn, is not so pretty to me at 
this time, as when we saw her some time ago, " waly-cot, 
bairfut, and bair-leg," in the fields at Brellington ; for she 
was then, apparently, in the way of her duty. Her hus- 
band, King Charles, remained at Hampton Court till No- 
vember 17, 1647; when he, frightened by threats of 
"levellers" in the army, or for some other reason, fled in 
an uncertain, aimless way ; and with, or without, his own 



A ROYALIST IN EXILE. 329 

consent (for all is uncertain) got into Carisbrooke Castle, 
in the Isle of Wight. This attempt of the King to escape 
caused a more strict confinement of him ; for he was still 
in keeping of the army : but now, when his case seemed 
most hopeless, the Scots began to move for him. 

We remember that when the English Commissioners, 
Sir Harry Vane and others, were at Edinburgh, in 1643, 
negotiating an alliance with the Scots, forming a " Solemn 
League and Covenant," our old friend, the Reverend Rob- 
ert Baillie, made a very important discovery, and an- 
nounced it to his correspondent in these words : " The 
English are for a civil league ; we for a religious cov- 
enant." Afterwards Baillie, long in London with the 
Scotch Commissioners, made, in 1646, another discovery, 
and announced it thus : " The Independents have the least 
zeal to the truth of God of any men we know. Blasphe- 
mous heresies are now spread here more than ever in any 
part of the world ; yet they [the Independents] are not 
only silent, but are patrons and pleaders for liberty almost 
to them all. We and they have spent many sheets of 
paper upon the toleration of their separate churches." 
Another important discovery had been made too, which 
was announced by the Earl of Loudon, Chancellor of 
Scotland, in a meeting of English and Scotch Presbyte- 
rians held at the house of the Earl of Essex in London : 
*' Ye ken varra weel that Lieutenant-General Cromwell is 
no friend of ours : " he is, too, what we Scots call an " in- 
cendiary," " one who kindleth coals of contention." 

In the beginning of the year 1648, therefore, it had 
become apparent that the destruction of King Charles 
would not make the Kirk of Scotland dominant in Eng- 
land and elsewhere, but might lead to a very different 
result. Therefore Scotland at last proposed to march into 

28* 



330 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

England, and deliver the King from these Independents, 
and set him up a little, on conditions which could be 
agreed on, it was hoped, at the proper time ; though a 
minority of the people, called Rigids, and led by Argyle, 
were strenuous for naming conditions at the start. The 
party called Moderates, under the lead of the Duke of 
Hamilton, getting the upper hand, sent a messenger to 
Paris, to ask the sanction of the Queen Henrietta, Roman 
Catholic though she was, to their Presbyterian war ; and 
got it, though Montrose opposed with objections ; he hav- 
ing at this time, as at all other times, no faith in the Duke 
of Hamilton, who " had always been, and would ever be, 
untrusty." 

Early in April of this year 1648, the exiled Marquis, 
seeing how matters were going, and that there could be no 
work for him in the cause of the King for a time at least, 
left France and travelled northward, though he had in- 
ducements to remain — offers of office and emoluments 
from the French, which must have been tempting to a man 
in need himself, and who had friends in need too, urging 
him to accept these offers. Of these and other matters 
we have authentic account from his nephew, the young 
Lord Napier, who had been for some time there in Paris 
with good opportunities of knowing all that concerned his 
uncle. The following letter, written by the young Lord to 
his wife, then in Scotland, though long, will be interesting. 
The date is " Brussells, 14th June, 1648." 

My dearest Heart : 

I did forbear these two months to write unto you till I 
should hear from Montrose, that I might have done it for 
good and all ; but fearing- that may take some time, I 
resolved to give you an account of all my Lord's proceed- 



A ROYALIST IN EXILE. 331 

ings, and the reasons which did invite me to come to this 
place. Montrose, then (as you did hear), was in treaty 
with the French, who, in my opinion, did offer him very 
honorable conditions, which were these : First, that he 
should be General to the Scots in France, and Lieutenant- 
General to the royal army when he joined with them, com- 
manding all the Mareschals of the Field ; as likewise to 
be Captain of the Gens-d'Arms, with twelve thousand 
crowns a year of pension, besides his pay ; and assurance, 
the next year, to be Mareschal of France, and Captain of 
the King's own guard, which is a place bought and sold at 
a hundred and fifty thousand crowns. But these last two 
places were not insert among his other conditions, only 
promised him by the Cardinal Mazarine : but the others 
were all articles of their capitulation, which I did see in 
writing, and used all the inducement and persuasions I 
could to make him embrace them. He seemed to hearken 
unto me, which caused me at that time to show that I 
hoped shortly to acquaint you with things of more cer- 
tainty, and to better purpose than I had done formerly. 
But while I was thus in hope and daily expectation of his 
present agreement with them, he did receive advertise- 
ments from Germany that he would be welcome to the 
Emperor. Upon which he took occasion to send for me, 
and began to quarrel with the conditions were offered him, 
and said that any employment below a Mareschal of 
France was inferior to him ; and that the French had be- 
come enemies to our King, and did labor still to foment 
the differences betwixt him and his subjects (that he might 
not be capable to assist the Spaniard, whom they thought 
he was extremely inclined to favor), and that if he [Mon- 
trose] did engage with them, he should be forced to con- 
nive and wink at his Prince's ruin ; and for these reasons 



332 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

he would let the treaty desert, and go into Germany, 
where he would be honorably appointed ; which sudden 
resolution did extremely trouble and astonish me. I was 
very desirous he should settle in France, and did use again 
all the arguments I could to make him embrace such prof- 
itable conditions ; as, if he had been once in charge, I am 
confident, in a very short time, he should have been one 
of the most considerable strangers in Europe. For, be- 
lieve it, they had a huge esteem of him ; some eminent 
persons came to see him, who refused to make the first 
visit to the Embassadors Extraordinary of Denmark and 
Sweden, yet did not stand to salute him first with all the 
respect that could be imagined. But to the purpose : he, 
seeing me a little ill satisfied with the course he was going 
to take, did begin to dispute the matter with me, and, I 
confess, convinced me so with reason that I rested content, 
and was desirous he should execute his resolution with all 
imaginable speed ; and did agree that I should stay at my 
exercises in Paris till the end of the month, and go often 
to Court, make visits, and ever in public places, at com- 
edies, and such things, still letting the word go that my 
uncle was gone to the country for his health, which was 
believed so long as they saw me, for it was ever said that 
Montrose and his nephew were like the Pope and the 
Church, who would be inseparable. Whereas, if I had 
gone away with him, and left my exercises abruptly in 
the middle of the month, his course would presently have 
been discovered. Then search had been made every 
where ; and if he had been taken going to any of the 
House of Austria, who were their enemies [enemies of 
the French] you may think they would have staid him, 
which might have been dangerous to his person, credit, 
and fortune. So there was no way to keep his course 



A ROYALIST IN EXILE. 333 

close but for me to stay behind him at my exercises (as I 
had done a long time before) till I should hear he were 
out of all hazard ; which I did, according to all the in- 
structions he gave me. The first letter I received from 
him was dated at Geneva. So, when I perceived he was 
out of French ground, I resolved to come here to Flanders, 
where I might have freedom of correspondence with him, 
which I could not do conveniently in France : for I was 
afraid, how soon his course should chance to be discovered, 
that they might seek assurance of me and others not to 
engage with their enemy, which is ordinary in such cases ; 
yet would I never have given them any, but thought best 
to prevene it. Besides, I had been at so great a charge 
for a month after his way-going, with staying at Court, and 
keeping of a coach there, which I hired, and coming back 
to Paris and living at a greater rate than I did formerly 
(all which was his desire, yet did consume much moneys) ; 
and fearing to be short, that I did resolve to come here 
and live privately ; than to live in a more inferior way in 
France than I had done formerly. So these gentlemen 
who belonged to my Lord, hearing of my intention, would 
by any means go along : and we went all together to 
Haver-de-Grace, where we took ship for Middleburgh, 
and thence came here, where we are daily expecting Mon- 
trose's commands : which, how soon I receive them, you 
shall be advertised by him who entreats you to believe 
that he shall study most carefully to conserve the quality 
he has hitherto inviolably kept of continuing, my dearest 
Life, only yours, Napiek. 

A postscript to this letter as long as the letter itself, and, 
doubtless, very interesting to "My dearest Heart," could 
not be of much interest to us, and we therefore omit it ; 



334 JAMES GKAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

noting only that Napier says in it, he wishes to remove 
from Brussels because it had been " resolved the Prince of 
Wales," afterwards Charles the Second, " should go to 
Scotland ; " and that he, Napier, was apprehensive the 
Prince would " desire me to go with him," " which you 
know I could not do; for I was not assured that they 
would keep truth." They means the Covenanters of 
" Hamilton's engagement " for the King, just then getting 
under way for England. 

This wife, to whom Napier writes, was the Lady Eliza- 
beth Erskine, daughter of the Earl of Mar, to whom Mon- 
trose " had always promised, at his death, to leave his 
heart," in token of his sense " of the unremitting kind- 
ness she had shown him in all the different vicissitudes of 
his life and fortune : " and, when his mutilated body lay 
buried among common malefactors, she, at dead of night, 
with two resolute assistants, got the heart from it and em- 
balmed it. The time was a wild one ; and if hate was 
strong then, so was love. 

Montrose, leaving Paris, as the letter of his nephew 
Lord Napier informs us, in April, 1648, went then through 
Switzerland into Austria, seeking audience of the Em- 
peror ; and found him at last at Prague. The Emperor 
received him graciously, and gave him authority to levy 
men on the borders of Flanders to be used in the service 
of King Charles, if occasion offered. He got, too, of the 
Emperor the office of Field Marshal of the Empire by 
patent, dated at the Castle of Lintz, on the Danube. 

Napier's account of the honors paid to the Marquis at 
the Court of France, where they had " a huge esteem of 
him," is confirmed by Dr. Wishart's account of his recep- 
tion there and at other Courts in Europe. Bishop Burnet, 
the historian of the Hamiltons, said of Montrose in Scot- 



A KOYALIST IN EXILE. 335 

land, that lie was " a young man well learned, who had 
travelled ; but had taken upon him the part of a hero too 
much, and lived as in a romance ; for his whole manner 
was stately to affectation ; " and these words of dispraise 
tally well with the words of praise uttered by the Cardinal 
de Retz, who saw the man in France. This Cardinal, who 
had seen many kinds of men, says of this one in his Me- 
moirs, that he was the only man he had ever known who 
reminded him of the heroes of Plutarch : " Montross, 
Ecossois, et chef de la maison de Graham, le seul homme 
du monde qui m' ait jamais rappelle Videe de certains heros 
que Von ne voit plus que dans les Vies de Plutarquey 
The man, wandering about in exile, did not abate one jot 
of his lofty bearing ; indeed could not ; for he was to that 
manner born. This lofty man went now from Vienna 
through Prussia, and embarked, at Dantzic, for Denmark, 
where he spent some time at the Court of King Christian ; 
and, after other travels, making interest wherever he could 
for the object he had at heart, he came, towards the close 
of that year 1648, to Lord Napier and other friends at 
Brussels. 

Duke Hamilton's expedition to deliver the King from 
the hands of the English, had, months before, come to its 
shameful end. The Duke, with his army of " forty thou- 
sand men," or less, marching in a loose, straggling way, 
got into Lancashire ; but there Cromwell, with his smaller 
army, compact, decisive, cut across the line of march and 
put an end to it. The Duke himself got into prison, and 
came, in March, 1649, to the scaffold and the axe. Mon- 
trose remained at Brussels some time, and Mr. Mark Na- 
pier, in his Memoirs, gives in full the correspondence with 
distinguished persons, so far as it has been preserved, or 
discovered. There were then resident at the Hague the 



336 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTEOSE. 

Prince of Wales, — afterwards Charles the Second, — the 
Duke of York, who, as James the Second, was, after trial, 
found wanting in kingly qualities, and had to give place 
to a man abler than himself ; Elizabeth Stuart, — sister 
of Charles the First, and for short time Queen of Bohe- 
mia ; Prince Rupert, son of this Elizabeth ; and the Chan- 
cellor, Sir Edward Hyde, afterwards Lord Clarendon ; with 
all of whom Montrose had correspondence. That with 
Prince Rupert, earliest in date, is of little interest ; the 
staple of it being only ceremony and compliment. The 
bearer of some of these letters was Sir John Urrey ; who, 
spelt Urrey, or Urrie, or Hurry, is the same tall, robust 
fellow, with a deep scar on his cheek, who had the honor 
of being exiled with the Marquis of Montrose. Sir John, 
a soldier of fortune, changed sides often ; and the best 
thing I know of him is, that he never gave any reasons 
for change. Sir John's verbal messages may have been of 
some moment, but the written ones were certainly of little. 
The dates are all 1648, in the fall months, when Rupert 
was at work trying to organize an expedition by sea for 
the service of the King, and also for his own. There were 
great difficulties — want of money ; consequently want of 
men ; and mutiny on board the ships. At one time Ru- 
pert was very busy, as he says, in " severing the goats 
from the sheep" among his sailors ; himself preferring the 
goats probably ; and therefore he could not get time for an 
interview with Montrose ; who, on his part, says, in one 
of these letters dated December 3d, " I must confess, as 
your Highness has perhaps heard, that it is my resolution 
to return for the Imperial court," " in regard there is noth- 
ing of honour amongst the stuff here, and that I am not 
found useful for his Majesty's service in the way of home." 
He says however, furthermore, that if there is any thing 



A ROYALIST IN EXILE. 337 

he can do for that service, he will " forego all" else, and 
dispose of himself " accordingly." And again on the 
14th, when some arrangement for a meeting had been 
made, he writes : I " did receive a letter just at the same 
time from one Mr. Mowbray, who pretends to have orders 
for me from his Majesty, and to be on the way with them : " 
and therefore he would wait and see what the matter could 
be. Probably a very small matter, as we hear no more of 
it ; but Clarendon says, that a Mr. Mowbray came to the 
Hague, and brought "advices to the Prince [of Wales] 
from the Earl of Lanerick, who continued his devotion 
to his Highness," and would be ready to serve him in any 
way, and would be willing " to join with my Lord Marquis 
of Montrose," and even to be " a sergeant under Mon- 
trose." Very likely the Earl of Lanerick sent some mes- 
sage of that kind : he, brother of the Duke of Hamilton, 
was one of a large number of Scottish nobles who were 
watchful of the turns of tide, desirous above all things of 
saving themselves and their estates. Prince Rupert sailed 
with his fleet for Ireland at the commencement of the year 
1649 ; the purpose being, I suppose, to give assistance, or 
make some show of assistance, to the Duke of Ormonde, 
Avho was then very busy trying to unite the many parties 
of that country into one for the King : one other purpose 
Rupert certainly had in mind — the getting of moneys by 
prizes at sea, or otherwise ; for of money there was great 
want among the exiled Stuarts and their adherents. Some 
expressions in these letters, passing between Rupert and 
Montrose, indicate a plan of proceedings in a joint way ; 
probably some scheme for transporting Irishmen to the 
west of Scotland to serve under Montrose ; but it came to 
nothing. 

Soon after the correspondence with Rupert closed, one 
29 



338 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

began with Charles, Prince of Wales ; commenced, it 
seems, by Charles, who, in a letter dated at the Hague, 
January 20, says to Montrose, who was then at Brus- 
sels : "I have appointed the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
to meet you in any place you shall appoint, and by him 
you shall understand my mind upon the w^hole." " I need 
not tell you there must be great secrecy in this business." 
Correspondence followed with the Chancellor Sir Edward 
Hyde, who also says : " The highest secrecy is absolutely 
necessary." This need of secrecy was because his High- 
ness was then negotiating with the Covenanters ; and 
discovery of intercourse with the hated Montrose would 
damage the interests of the Prince with them. The Chan- 
cellor, therefore, named several obscure places for an in- 
terview, to all of which Montrose objected ; at last, how- 
ever, Sevenbergen, named by him, was agreed on ; and he 
then, under date of January 28, writes to his Royal High- 
ness. After saying that he has arranged a meeting with 
the Chancellor, he concludes thus : " As I never had pas- 
sion upon Earth so strong as that to do the King your 
father service, so it shall be my study, if your Highness 
command me, to show it redoubled for the recovery 
of you." 

But news came now which delayed this meeting a while 
— news of the death of Charles the First on the scaffold ; 
very shocking indeed to the Marquis of Montrose. Dr. 
Wishart, then present, gives an account of its effect on 
him : " Not grief merely, but a passionate burst of lamenta- 
tion ; not simply anger, but the very phrenzy of indignation, 
seized him on the instant ; so that ere long he fell down 
in the midst of those around him, his limbs in a state of 
rigidity, and utterly deprived of animation and conscious- 
ness." Recovering from this fit, the Marquis broke away 



A KOYALIST IN EXILE. 339 

from those present, withdrew to his own apartments, and 
remained secluded for three days. When Dr. Wishart, at 
the end of that term, entered the bedroom of the Marquis, 
he foulid the well-known verses : — 

*« Great, Good and Just ! could I but rate 
My grief with thy too rigid fate, 
I'd weep the world in such a strain 
That it should deluge once again : 
But since thy loud-voiced blood demands supplies 
More from Briareus-hands than Argus-eyes, 
I'll sing thine obsequies with trumpet-sounds, 
And write thine epitaph with blood and wounds." 

Critics having little interest in the matter, and sitting 
in cool judgment afar off, find these lines very extrav- 
agant : but in such utterance the writer, debarred from im- 
mediate action, found relief from his deep emotion, and had 
no thought of the critics. Indeed these lines on Charles 
the First, and other metrical productions of Montrose, are 
interesting to us not so much on account of their lit- 
erary merits, as because they came from him, and serve to 
show what he could have done in that kind of work if he 
had been called to follow it. His longest poem was com- 
posed, probably, in the Highlands, when his Redshanks, 
according to their wont after victory, went away to their 
homes, and left him in enforced idleness. The conceits 
in it of Monarchy, Commonwealth, Synod, Committees, 
springing from a mind filled with thoughts of the busy 
scenes in which he had been an actor, give to parts of 
this song the look of an allegory, though the writer had, 
probably, no purpose of that kind , little purpose indeed 
of any kind, except to beguile the time. A verse of it, 
which young folks may find interesting, shall be placed 
here ; — 



340 JAMES GEAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

'< The golden laws of love shall be 

Upon those pillars hung, 
A simple heart, a single eye, 

A true and constant tongue : 
Let no man for more love pretend 

Than he has heart in store ; 
True love begun shall never end ; 

Love one, and love no more." 

Readers at this present day, holding Charles the First in 
no great rererence, will inquire how it was that this Marquis 
of Montrose, whose chief virtue, as we hare seen, was not 
humility, could so subordinate himself to that poor King ; 
and, after swooning at news of his death, hail him " Great, 
Good and Just." The answer is not far to seek, and has 
been in part indeed already given : but we may say fur- 
ther, that the feeling of the strong Marquis towards the 
weak King was akin to that of a knight of the days of 
chivalry to his chosen mistress, whom he had seen only at 
a distance, and had, in fancy, endowed with all the per- 
fections of womanhood. She, a peerless lady, lovely and 
helpless, dwelt apart, encompassed by dangers ; and he, 
strength in every limb of him, felt himself made expressly 
to serve her : but, indeed, the noble man, born into times 
of chivalry or not, yearns always for a superior ; and the 
noblest, in default of other, will make one for himself. 

The poor King, for whom Montrose had done so much, 
now lay dead ; but the right of inheritance remained, and 
he turned himself, sorrowfully, to a second Charles, less 
worthy of his services, certainly, than the first one. On the 
15th of February, 1649, he wrote to Chancellor Hyde : — 

My Lord : — 

I am so surprized with the sad relation of yours that I 
know not how to express it : for the griefs that astonish 



A EOYALIST IN EXILE. 341 

speak more with their silence than those that can complain. 
... I pray God Almighty that our young master make 
his right use every way ; and, in particular, that rogues 
and traitors may not now begin to abuse his trusts, as 
they have done his father's, to ruin him, . . . and lay all in 
the dust at once. Their coming at this conjuncture can 
carry no better things. Their impudence, I must confess, 
is great, nay intolerable ; and it concerns all such of you 
who are able, and faithful unto his Majesty, to make him 
aware, that at least he may shun their villainy. It will be 
no more time now to dally ; for if affection and love to the 
justice and virtue of that cause be not incitements great 
enough, anger and just revenge, methinks, should wing us 
on. But, being afraid rather to spoil my thoughts than 
express them, I shall not trouble you further in this tem- 
per I am in ; but only say that I am yours, 

MONTKOSE. 

The men referred to in this letter were leading Cov- 
enanters, or their agents, who came to the Hague to try 
what they could do with this second Charles Stuart ; for 
their brethren of England would not interpret the Solemn 
League and Covenant aright ; and now, therefore, this 
Charles should be King, if he would promise to be King 
for the Kirk. Lord Byron, writing to the Marquis of 
Ormonde 30th March, 1649, makes this report of parties : 
" I came to the Hague about ten days since ; where, not 
long before, the Earl of Lanerick, now Duke Hamilton, 
was arrived. There I found likewise the Marquis of 
Montrose, the Earls of Lauderdale, Callender, and Sea- 
forth, the Lords St. Clair, and Napier, and old William 
Murray. These, though all of one nation, are subdivided 
into four several factions. The Marquis of Montrose, with 
29^ 



342 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

the Lords St. Clair and Napier, are very earnest for the 
King's going into Ireland : all the rest oppose it, though 
in different ways. I find Duke Hamilton very moderate, 
and certainly he would be much more [so] were it not for 
the violence of Lauderdale, who haunts him like a fury. 
Callender and Seaforth have a faction apart ; and so hath 
Will Murray, employed here by Argyle." This Will Mur- 
ray is that " little Will Murray " who had the uncommon 
faculty of holding his tongue fast under circumstances 
which tend to loosen the tongues of most men. He had 
been the agent of many conflicting parties, and now we 
find him " employed here by Argyle." The man was a 
busybody and mischief-maker, and had great need of his 
uncommon faculty. 

At this time, the last of March, 1649, Commissioners 
from the Kirk arrived at the Hague — Mr. Robert Blair, 
minister of St. Andrews, Mr. Robert Baillie (our old 
friend). Professor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow, 
Mr. James Wood, Professor of Divinity in the University 
of St. Andrews — ministers ; and John, Earl of Cassillis, 
and Mr. George Wynrame — elders. Their first two prop- 
ositions were, " that his Majesty should abandon the Marquis 
of Montrose as a man unworthy to come near his person, 
or into the society of any good men, because he is excom- 
municated by their Kirk ; " and " that his Majesty would 
take the Covenant, and put himself into the arms (so they 
term it) of the Parliament and Kirk of Scotland." Their 
first address to his Majesty, dated April 9th, begins : " May 
it please your Majesty : According to our commission, we 
do represent, in the name of the Kirk of Scotland, their 
earnest desire that such as lie under their censure of ex- 
communication may be discountenanced by your Majesty, 
and removed from your court ; especially James Graham, 



A ROYALIST IN EXILE. 343 

late Earl of Montrose, being a man most justly of any cast 
out of the church of God : " and again they speak of him 
as " a person upon whose head lies more innocent blood 
than for many years has done on the head of any, — the 
most bloody murderer in our nation." The address, or 
petition, ends thus : " And that this cursed man, whose 
scandalous carriage, pernicious counsels and contagious 
company cannot fail, so long as he remains in his obsti- 
nate impenitency, to dishonour and pollute all places of 
his familiar access, and to provoke the anger of the most 
high God against the same, may not be permitted by your 
Majesty to stand in the entry of all our hopes to our great 
discouragement and fear ; lest by his guilt, example, and 
actings, all the humble desires and wholesome counsel 
which we are entrusted with should be obstructed and 
frustrate." 

Against this monster of iniquity the Covenanters made, 
however, only three specific charges that seemed to have 
any foundation in fact — cruelty, ambition, vanity. The 
first charge, in itself incredible, has been abundantly dis- 
proved by his biographers ; against the other two I do not 
care to defend him : if a man have real ability, and be of 
noble presence, we will not quarrel with the ambition that 
impels him to act, nor with the vanity (so called) that leads 
him to produce himself before men. 

The petitions and propositions of the Covenanters were 
submitted to Montrose by the King, who asked his opin- 
ion of the matter and his counsel. The monster of in- 
iquity made written answer, which is too long for insertion 
here ; nor is there need of it. He shows in this paper 
that he still held to the doctrine of his letter on Sovereign 
Power ; that sovereignty is a power over the people ; or in 
other words, that government should govern ; and he ad- 



344 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

vised his Majesty, or would-be Majesty, not to bargain 
with the Covenanters for a throne ; but, on the contrary, 
to '* use all vigorous and active ways, as the only probable 
human means left to redeem you." He advised Charles to 
subscribe the National Covenant, which he held to be in- 
tended only to exclude Popery ; but urged him not to 
sanction in any way the Solemn League and Covenant, for 
*' it were your Majesty's shame and ruin ever to give ear 
to it." In this long letter Montrose made no other al- 
lusion to matters purely personal to himself, than this one : 
" I conceive myself obliged, in duty and honor, to under- 
value all their malice, and truly to inform your Majesty in 
what you are, and may be, so much concerned." This 
"cursed man" would not, under any provocation, curse 
again ; and there need be no doubt that he, if invested 
with absolute power, would have given to the Kirk of 
Scotland such toleration as it deserved, and as much as it 
finally got, after all its claims and struggles. 

Montrose was now, however, according to Lord Byron's 
letter to the Marquis of Ormonde, " very earnest for the 
King's going into Ireland," where that Marquis had long 
been at work uniting many parties in support of the Stu- 
arts ; and had, to a great extent, prevailed. Catholics 
there, two kinds of them, and Protestants as many as 
three kinds I believe, were at this time loyal ; and, after 
the death of Charles the First, were ready for war against 
" the regicides." Montrose, therefore, was very urgent 
for Charles the Second to go into that country, set up the 
royal standard, and try to be King, not for the Covenanters 
specially, but King over all. Aunt Elizabeth, Queen once 
of Bohemia, was urgent for that too ; but mother Henri- 
etta, now called Queen Mother, recommended an agree- 
ment with the Scotch Covenanters, as the readiest and 



A ROYALIST IN EXILE. 345 

cheapest way of getting a kingdom ; for these Covenanters 
offered it, asking only promises in return ; and the Roman 
Catholic Frenchwoman, who could get her own sins par- 
doned and sin again, thought the cheapest way to a throne 
the best. The time was full of difficulties ; and Charles, 
listening to a multitude of counsellors, continued doubtful 
long. This Queen Mother wrote letters to Montrose, 
which readers who have little respect for the woman 
shall not be troubled with ; but they may read one from 
her son, dated "Breda 22d June 1649," when he was on 
his way from the Hague to Paris : — 

Montrose : 

Whereas the necessity of my affairs has obliged me to 
renew your former trusts and commissions concerning the 
Kingdom of Scotland; the more to encourage you unto 
my service, and render you confident of my resolutions, 
both touching myself and you, I have thought fit by 
these to signify to you, that I will not determine any thing 
touching the affairs of that kingdom, without having your 
advice thereupon ; as also I will not do any thing preju- 
dicial to your commission. 

Charles R. 

With this letter Montrose received a commission as 
Lieutenant-Governor of Scotland and Captain-General; 
and Charles R., breaking off his negotiations with the 
Covenanters, seemed disposed to send this Captain-General 
to war against them, while he himself would go into Ire- 
land ; if he could do it conveniently ; for Charles, who had 
in these days of his youth some kind of conscience I sup- 
pose, did not quite like to get into a throne by false 
promises of serving the Kirk of Scotland. 

But Montrose got with his commission no means for 



346 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

action in the proposed invasion of Scotland, and he there- 
fore tarried a while longer at the Hague, or near it ; where 
no one was more kind to him than Elizabeth Stuart, " the 
unfortunate Queen of Bohemia ; " unfortunate as Queen, 
but not unhappy as woman ; for she was vivacious, cheer- 
ful, charming ; and all men were ready to do her homage. 
Fiery Duke Christian of Brunswick — a tall, gaunt, bony 
figure, with face long, angular, and pale, the eyes of it 
flashing ; a man quixotic inside and out — snatched her 
glove when he saw her, and placed it on his hat, and vowed 
himself her knight, and inscribed on his banner Allesfur 
Ruhm und Ihr — All for Glory and Her. The English 
Lord Craven, long her devoted friend, took her in her old 
age to his English home, and cared for her as for a sister. 
Fleeing in 1620 from Bohemia, where she had been Queen 
for a twelvemonth, she lived ten years, or more, in hope 
of help to her husband from Gustavus Adolphus ; but the 
Great Gustav was not in haste to help, while Stuart Kings 
would raise no hand in the great cause for which he lived 
and died. 

When Montrose made acquaintance with Elizabeth at 
the Hague, she was a widow over fifty, and had three 
sons ; two of them well known in English history — 
Prince Rupert, who lacked but little of being good for 
something ; and Prince Maurice, who was born, almost on 
horseback, in the flight from Prague. She had also four 
daughters, very interesting young ladies no doubt, all of 
them ; but in one of them Montrose would have felt special 
interest if he had known what would come of her : she, 
named Sophia, with Stuart blood in her, married the 
Elector of Hanover, Ernest Augustus of Brunswick ; and so 
Britain, when the years came round, got her Royal Georges, 
four of them, and was blessed. Of all this hidden in the 



A KOYALIST IN EXILE. 347 

future then, Montrose happily knew nothing ; but he found 
the widowed mother still charming, keeping her cheerful 
temper, best of possessions, through all changes of for- 
tune ; and intercourse with her, by letters and otherwise, 
was, I think, a considerable blessing to the exiled man. 
From her kind, frank, sisterly letters he got all the news 
current at the Hague — mixed news, true and untrue ; 
like the current news in other times and places. On the 
24th of June, she, by letter, says to him : "I have found 
that the Prince of Orange will again press the King to 
grant the Commissioners' [Scots] desires, and so ruin him 
through your sides : " and " for God's sake leave not the 
King so long as he is at Breda ; for without question there 
is nothing that will be omitted to ruin you and your friends, 
and so the King at last." In a postscript the lady says : 
" I give you many thanks for your picture ; I have hung it 
in my cabinet to fright away the brethren." This picture, 
hung there to fright away the Covenanters, was probably, 
according to Mr. Napier's showing, a portrait of Montrose 
by Gerard Honthorst, an artist then resident at the Hague. 
Within ten days the lady writes again, and tells him she 
has heard in a roundabout way, "that Cromwell — I 
mean that arch rebel — had received news how their ships 
being before Kinsale, are all taken or sunk to the number 
of nine of them." This news was partly true, for Prince 
Rupert, with his ships, did, at Kinsale, in the south of 
Ireland, get hold of some ships of the Parliament ; but he 
did little more there. Elizabeth had heard too, " that 
they are all up again in Scotland;" and " that the English 
Parliament can get no soldier to go into Ireland ; " but 
the Parliament did get soldiers to go there ; and the " all 
up again in Scotland" was only a partial rising for the 
King of the clan Mackenzie in the north, which came to 



348 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

nothing. She says further : " I do not desire you should 
quit Brussells while there is danger of change. I hear 
Jermyn [Queen Henrietta's Jermyn] has orders to get your 
commission for Hamilton ! If that be true> sure they are 
all mad or worse." The long letter concludes thus : "I 
pray God you may read this, for I have scribbled it in 
great haste. I hope you will be able to read this truth, 
that I am ever constantly your most affectionate Elizabeth." 
Elizabeth, Queen of Hearts, she was called ; with some 
reason, as we can see. Her next letters, early in August, 
came from Rhenen on the Rhine. '*I pray God," she 
says, " keep the King in his constancy to you, and his 
other true friends and servants ; but till he is gone from 
where he is I shall be in pain." The King then was in 
Paris, and aunt Elizabeth feared that mother Henrietta 
would prevail with him to come to agreement with the 
Covenanters. Between these two ladies there was little 
love or none ; and the King was swayed from side to side 
continually. At Rhenen on the Rhine, " we have nothing 
to do," says Elizabeth to Montrose, " but walk and shoot. 
I am grown a good archer to shoot with my Lord Kinnoul. 
If your office will suffer it, I hope you will come and help 
us to shoot." 

But Montrose could not go to shoot with the archers 
again ; nor did my Lord Kinnoul stay long at that kind of 
shooting ; for both of them were then about setting out 
northward to organize an expedition for Scotland. On the 
15th of August of this year 1649, Montrose was at the 
Hague writing to the Earl of Seaforth, who had agreed, it 
seems, to go into Scotland, raise his clan Mackenzie, and 
organize some force to join the invaders : the letter-writer 
said to the dilatory Earl : "I am sorry you are still in that 
place " — Paris, whither Seaforth had gone with the King ; 



A ROYALIST IN EXILE. 349 

for he, more prudent than Montrose, would take no decisive 
step for his Majesty till his Majesty would step out for 
himself. The Captain-General, more inclined to move, 
said furthermore to Seaforth : " I am just now setting out 
and intend to recover these delays by the best despatch I 
can." These delays had been many. Charles, impatient for 
a throne, and the pleasures that would come with it, was 
reading, or trying to read, the chapter of chances. Mother 
Henrietta, with whom the Prince of Orange took sides, 
counselled agreement with the Covenanters; aunt Eliza- 
beth, supported by the Princess of Orange, advised the 
reverse of that; and the young man, listening to these 
and other counsellors, could come to no conclusion. When 
Charles in June gave Montrose commission for Scotland, 
he had himself, probably, some intention of going into 
Ireland. But the Covenanters continued to negotiate, or 
to offer to negotiate ; the issue was uncertain, and the in- 
vasion of Scotland was therefore delayed. There was also 
another cause of delay — want of money. When Prince 
Rupert had mutiny in his fleet at Helviot Sluys, near 
the Hague, there was want of money; and he sold one 
of his ships, and his mother sold her jewels, to raise funds 
to get other ships under headway : and at another time, 
when Charles wished to send a message to Paris, his mes- 
senger could not move for want of fifty pounds to pay 
expenses of the journey. The Stuarts, not an economical 
race, had fallen on evil days ; and one of the most tempt- 
ing off'ers made by the Scotch at this time to Charles was 
an offer of cash — a hundred thousand pounds of it, 
or more. 

The delays which the Captain-General had " to recover" 
were many ; but at the close of August, 1649, he did get 
under way, and went northward to make ready for Scot- 

30 



350 JAMES GEAHAM, MAEQFIS OF MONTKOSE. 

land : and " the King," as Elizabeth writes from Rhenen 
on the Rhine, *' is still at St. Germains, but constant to 
his resolution for Ireland, and for all his friends : for all 
that, I would he were well gone from there." Again, on 
the 2d of October, when she had returned to the Hague, 
she writes : "I am very glad to see by yours of the 14th 
of last month, that you are safely arrived at Hamburg." 
*' The business in Ireland is not so bad as it was reported 
at first ; but too ill for the King's affairs. Ormond has 
lost no towns, nor Cromwell done any thing ; but from 
England they keep the affairs of that kingdom [of Ireland] 
so in a cloud as we hear nothing of certainty ; which I 
hope is a good sign that the King's affairs there go better 
than they would have known. They [the King and others] 
went for Jersey upon Monday was se'ennight ; " and if the 
King, as Elizabeth has been told, " find no impediment of 
Parliament ships he will go to Ireland ; otherwise he will 
stay at Jersey for a sure passage." " Lord Jermyn is com- 
ing hither," she says, and she tells all the tattle about it ; 
coming *' to take order about the jewels ; " jewels pledged, 
I suppose, by Henrietta, a little before she fled into the 
fields at Brellington ; coming to bring Henrietta herself 
hither. His purpose in coming " others think is to meet 
with Duke Hamilton, Lauderdale, and your other friends^ 
to have new Commissioners sent to the King from the godly 
brethren, to cross wicked Jamie Graeme's proceedings." 
Finally, " without compliment, I am ever your most affec- 
tionate, constant friend, Elizabeth." 

Again, three days later, there was another letter giving 
Montrose untrue news of " Cromwell's being defeated ; " 
*' though the rebels at London seek to conceal it all they 
can, yet it comes from all parts." But of this kind of 



A KOYALIST IN EXILE. 351 

news there was probably little more. Oliver Cromwell 
arrived in Dublin about the middle of August in this year 
1649 ; and it soon became plain that the King could not 
go into Ireland. In Scotland alone there was hope for 
him, and there his negotiations with the Covenanters 
served to prevent any other party from openly supporting 
his cause ; if, indeed, any other party there had strength 
to be of use to him. 

The letters of this lively lady gave to Montrose all the 
news at the Hague; very uncertain news, and he could 
only conclude from it that his own course would be into 
the dark: nevertheless he set himself to work. The 
reader remembers my Lord of Kinnoul, who, in the early 
days of August, was " walking abroad and shooting" with 
Elizabeth Stuart at Rhenen on the Rhine ; in the last days 
of that month, or the first of September, he, the third 
Earl of Kinnoul, embarked at some port in Denmark " with 
80 commanders and about a hundred Danes and stran- 
gers;" and, "after a stormy, one-and-twenty days sea- 
journey," landed at Kirkwall in the Orkneys. "They 
gave themselves out for the forerunners of James Graham's 
army of strangers ; they took the Castle of Birsay in Ork- 
ney and garrisoned it ; they brought arms and ammunition 
with them for a thousand men ; and immediately entered 
to levy and press soldiers." Kinnoul, soon after landing, 
wrote to Montrose in rather confident strain, giving account 
of his reception by Robert Earl of Morton his uncle, who 
held jurisdiction over the Islands of Orkney and Zetland ; 
and asserting that all the country was eager for the coming 
of the King's Lieutenant-Governor. But he was hardly 
ready to come; there being still "delays." From the 
month of August, 1649, when he left the Hague, till the 
spring of the next year, he was busy in the northern 
Courts of Europe seeking help for King Charles ; asking it 



352 JAMES GEAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

of King Christian of Denmark, Queen Christina of Sweden, 
" the King of Poland, the Dukes and Electors of the Em- 
pire, Friesland, Courland, Brunswick, Zell and Hanover." 
On the 27th of October, dating from Copenhagen, he writes 
to the Earl of Seaforth, complaining of the Earl's neglect 
in correspondence ; but thanking him for faithfulness to 
his Majesty, and friendship to himself, and assuring him 
thus : "I will make you the faithfulest returns my life can 
do; and if it please God I lose it not very suddenly, I 
shall be sure not to die in your debt." The writer of this 
letter was evidently not in good spirits, and I think he did 
not enter on this business of invading Scotland with whole 
heart, but had some misgivings in regard to it. He knew 
of the negotiations of King Charles with the Covenanters ; 
and from other friends, as well as from his frank corre- 
spondent Elizabeth, he learned that all continued uncertain 
still. Early in December he received a letter from her, 
dated 19th November, in which she told him: "Rupert 
was gone out of Kinsale, and passed by St. Malo three 
weeks ago, with six good ships." Some say Rupert " was 
gone toward the Straits" of Gibraltar to get prizes ; " but 
most believe him now at Jersey," where the King at that 
time was waiting for passage to Ireland, or pretending to 
wait for it. The lively lady continues in a rambling way : 
" If Windrum [George Wynram, one of the Scotch Com- 
missioners] comes [to Jersey] at the same time it will be a 
joyful sight as you guess. Without question the King 
will go with Rupert's ships ; but whither God knows, for 
I cannot assure you, since many letters say all goes ill in 
Ireland." Finally she says : " But I assure you there is 
nothing left undone to hinder your proceedings. I hope 
God will prosper you in spite of them ; which shall ever 
be the wish and prayer of your constant, affectionate 
friend, Elizabeth." 



A KOYALIST IN EXILE. 353 

Doubtful, uncertain, as the whole business looked, Mon- 
trose was at that time about to set sail for Scotland. On 
the 15th of December he wrote to Seaforth : "I am so 
pressed, being to set sail to-morrow for Scotland, that I 
can say little more; only I must give your Lordship a 
thousand thanks for your favors and kindness to your ser- 
vant, Mr. James Wood, which I humbly entreat you to 
continue." This James Wood, Mr. Napier says, is prob- 
ably the worthy clergyman who assisted Montrose to take 
boat in Montrose harbor three years ago. Very likely; 
the Marquis was always mindful of old friends and servants. 
But he did not " set sail to-morrow for Scotland," as he in- 
tended, other causes of delay arising. 

Negotiations with some of these northern courts had 
required time and skill : Sir John Cochrane, in a letter to 
Montrose dated Dantzic, December 3d of this year 1649, 
gave this account of one of them: "I found the Duke 
[of Courland] verie constant in his affections, but most 
miserablie covetous ; so that I gott ane absolute denyall to 
my first proposition : yett I earnestlie urged for a better 
answere. I got the Duchesse and most of his Councill on 
my syde, and, partlie with threatts, partlie with faire 
words, I wrested out of him a more favorable answere." I 
borrowed " 500 Reichthellers " and " gave them to some 
of the Duke's Councell and servants ; " and so by one 
means and another I got " six warre-shipps," " with three 
months provisions for evrie one of them." But of these 
six ships " three are yett on the stocks." Sir John having 
thus succeeded in getting six war-ships, with provisions, 
early in December, Montrose, perhaps, tarried a while at 
Copenhagen, waiting for their arrival ; or for the arrival 
of the three that were not on the stocks but afloat. 
Some time in January, however, a second division of forces 
30* 



354 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

for the invasion of Scotland sailed from Denmark, under 
command of a brother of that Earl of Kinnoul who led 
the first division : he, George Hay, third Earl of Kinnoul, 
died in the Orkneys soon after his arrival there, and this 
brother, leader of the second division, succeeded to the 
title. But Montrose himself still tarried at Copenhagen ; 
in want of money, and waiting for despatches from the 
King ; which, as he heard, were on the way to him ; de- 
spatches which might be of great importance ; for if 
Charles had come to agreement with the Covenanters, there 
would be no need of invasion of Scotland. From his cor- 
respondent Elizabeth he continued to learn the news at 
the Hague. She wrote to him, dating December 9th : " I 
have received yours of 4th of November," and " one from 
the King of the same date from Jersey ; who assures me 
he is not changed in his affections or designs, which he 
will show to the world very suddenly. Robert le Diable 
[Rupert] is about Scilly with seven good ships." " The 
King has not heard from you since his being at Jersey. I 
doubt not but you have seen by this the proclamation 
against Morton and Kinnoul, and all the adherents of * that 
detestable bloody murderer, and excommunicated traitor, 
James Graham.' The Turks never called the Christians 
so. Yet they are civil to the King in it ; for they do it not 
in his name, and name him but once in it." On the 7th 
of January, 1650, she wrote again; probably her last let- 
ter to him. She said in it: "The King, my nephew, is 
yet at Jersey ; " but soon " he will be gone either to Ire- 
land, or, if it be not fit for him, to your parts. This I am 
told ; as for Ireland, they tell so many lies as I dare believe 
nothing. Since Rupert was at Cape St. Vincent, on the 
coast of Portugal, I have not heard from him." " I pray 
God" " send you safety in Scotland." 



A KOYALIST IN EXILE. 355 

This sanguine woman, who had much faith in her son 
Rupert and was rather blind to his faults, believed that he 
could do much for the King ; and indeed the man did at 
first try to do something for him. After " separating the 
sheep from the goats " in his fleet at Helviot Sluys, he got 
under way, and with his ill-manned and every way ill- 
equipped ships, sailed down the English Channel : making 
bold front, he got through it, and, in due time, made port 
at Kinsale in the south of Ireland ; and, by stratagem, 
captured merchant-ships there. Blockaded then by war- 
ships of the Parliament, he, by skill, daring, and good 
luck, got out of Kinsale harbor into open sea ; feeling 
pretty sure, I think, that Charles the King would not get 
into Ireland, where Oliver Cromwell then was. Rupert, 
who had met that man several times in England, had 
reason to believe that he would do thorough work in Ire- 
land too, and leave small chance for the King there. Ru- 
pert, having sea room once more, and being in great want 
of money to keep his ships afloat, commenced privateering 
for the public good — a business which he, an unfortunate 
Prince without patrimony or matrimony, had to follow to 
a considerable extent for some time. 

With this Prince Rupert and his fleet hovering about, 
and with threats of going into Ireland on the one hand, 
and Montrose commissioned for Scotland on the other, 
Charles the Second hoped to frighten the Covenanters into 
an offer of better terms ; for he was, in fact, bargaining 
with them for a crown. Montrose himself must have seen, 
in part, how it was. Elizabeth Stuart's letters we have 
given extracts of ; but there were certainly other letters ; 
letters from his nephew. Lord Napier, who remained at 
Hamburg probably for the express purpose of getting 
information ; letters from other friends too ; and the King's 



356 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

Captain-General, seeing in part how the matter stood, de- 
layed proceedings, contrary to his wont in other times. 
The King himself, so long ago as when Montrose was at 
Hamburg, had to urge him onward by such a letter as 
this : — 

My Lord : 

I entreat you to go on vigorously, and with your wonted 
courage and care, in the prosecution of those trusts I have 
committed to you ; and not to be startled with any reports 
you may hear, as if I were otherwise inclined to the Presby- 
terians than when I left you. I assure you I am still upon 
the same principles I was, and depend as much as ever 
upon your undertaking and endeavours for my service ; 
being fully resolved to assist and support you therein to 
the uttermost of my power ; as you shall find, in effect, 
when you shall desire any thing to be done by your affec- 
tionate friend, „ _, 

Charles K. 

St. Germains, the 19th of September, 1649. 

Thus urged by assurances on the word of a King, Mon. 
trose went on northward to Gottenburg, and made ready ; 
and on the 15th of December intended "to set sail for 
Scotland to-morrow," as he wrote to Seaforth ; but he did 
not sail then ; and in January he was still at Gottenburg, 
waiting there for despatches from the King. These de- 
spatches arrived early in February: among them was "a 
public letter of instructions" from the King; and, in or- 
der that we may know what Montrose then knew, we will 
read it, or parts of it : — 

" Right trusty and right entirely beloved Cousin : 

We greet you well. An address having been lately 

made to us from Scotland by a letter (whereof we send you 



A ROYALIST IN EXILE. 357 

a copy herewith) wherein they desire that we should ac- 
knowledge their Parliament, and particularly the two last 
sessions of it, and thereupon offer to send a solemn address 
to us for a full agreement; we have in answer thereto 
returned our letter to them (a copy whereof we likewise 
send you here enclosed) by which we have appointed a 
speedy time and place for their Commissioners to attend 
us [at Breda]. To the end you may not apprehend that 
we intend by any thing contained in those letters, or by 
the treaty we expect, to give the least impediment to your 
proceedings, we think fit to let you know, that, as we con- 
ceive that your preparations have been one efiectual motive 
that hath induced them to make the said address to us, so 
your vigorous proceeding will be a good means to bring 
them to such moderation in the said treaty, as probably 
may produce an agreement, and a present union of that 
whole nation in our service. We assure you therefore, 
that we will not, before or during the treaty, do any thing 
contrary to that power and authority which we have given 
you by our commission, nor consent to any thing that may 
bring the least degree of diminution to it." Charles goes 
on saying that he prefers to reduce his subjects to obedi- 
ence by condescensions and kindnesses, if possible ; and 
adds, significantly : *' In the mean time we think fit to 
declare to you that we have called them a ' Committee of 
Estates' only in order to a treaty, and for no other end 
whatever." The paper concludes thus : " We require and 
authorize you, therefore, to proceed vigorously and efiectu- 
ally in your undertaking ; and to act, in all things in order 
to it, as you shall judge most necessary for the support 
thereof, and for our service in that way ; wherein we doubt 
not but all our loyal and well-aff'ected subjects of Scotland 
.will cordially and eff"ectually join with you ; and, by that 



358 JAMES GEAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTKOSE. 

addition of strength, either dispose those that are otherwise 
minded to make reasonable demands to us in the treaty, 
or be able to force them to it by arms, in case of their ob- 
stinate refusal. To which end we authorize you to com- 
municate and publish this our letter to all such persons as 
you shall think fit." 

With this public letter there came a packet containing 
the George and Ribbon of the Garter, and the following 
private letter : — 

Mr LOBD OF MONTEOSE : 

My public letter having expressed all that I have of 
business to say to you, I shall only add a word by this to 
assure you that I will never fail in the efi'ects of that friend- 
ship I have promised, and which your zeal to my service 
hath so eminently deserved ; and that nothing can happen 
to me shall make me consent to any thing to your preju- 
dice. I conjure you, therefore, not to take alarm at any 
reports or messages from others ; but to depend on my 
kindness ; and to proceed in your business with your 
usual courage and alacrity ; Avhich I am sure will bring 
great advantage to my affairs and much honour to yourself. 
I wish you all good success in it, and shall ever remain 
your affectionate friend, Chaeles K. 

Jersey, 12th-22d January, 1G49-50. 

This letter was probably the last one that Montrose re- 
ceived from his Majesty ; though it will be our unpleasant 
duty to read two or three more which his wicked Majesty 
wrote. 

Mr. Napier, in his biographies, is greatly troubled that 
Montrose at first took part with the Covenanters ; but 
his action then was, as I think, honorable to him, and in 



A KOYALIST IN EXILE. 359 

no way inconsistent with his action afterwards against 
them : but it is more difficult to justify his action for Charles 
the Second : we will, however, look a little and try to see 
how the matter was with him. 

In any fair judgment of Montrose as an actor in public 
life, little reference will be had to English affairs ; for he 
was interested almost exclusively in Scottish ; and his rev- 
erence for Charles the First was reverence for the heredi- 
tary King of Scotland^ Government of Scotland by Ar- 
gyle and his faction he held to be an intolerable evil, 
requiring abolition at all hazards. Monarchy under Stu- 
art Kings, he believed to be the only rightful government 
for Scotland ; a government sanctioned by the Almighty 
through many centuries. The death of a Stuart King on 
the scaffold was, therefore, in his view of it, a sacrilegious 
act, deserving the reprobation of all right-minded men — 
an act in which the worst criminals were, not Englishmen, 
but Scotchmen, who sold him for pieces of silver. Mon- 
trose, after the death of his King, characterized his own 
state of mind as his Passions. Filled at first with grief 
and indignation, his conflicting emotions subsided soon 
into one ; and he became possessed by an absorbing desire, 
a passion, to rescue his native land from the usurpers who 
governed it without right, and to place on the throne of it 
a Stuart ; one of that race of men who had been so long 
its rightful Kings. Nor was this man without a deep sense 
of his own personal wrongs : but the wrongs to himself 
had come because of his adherence to the King ; these 
therefore, and wrongs to the monarchy, had become in his 
mind one and the same, and his longing for the reinstate- 
ment of monarchy in Scotland grew, in these long years 
of exile, to an absorbing passion. So it was, I think, 
that this man gave himself to a Charles the Second, and 



360 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQTJIS OF MONTEOSE. 

became his instrument in that shameful bargain for a 
throne ; but he did it with a rather mournful feeling, for 
his higher instincts revolted against such courses. He 
had, however, entered on the work ; the time had come for 
invasion of Scotland, and he himself would not be wanting. 



CHAPTER IX. 

EETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND DEATH. 

The first division, or " the forerunners of James Gra- 
ham's army of strangers," consisting of " eighty com- 
manders and about one hundred Danes and strangers," led 
by George Hay, Earl of Kinnoul, arrived, as we know, at 
the Orkneys in September, 1649; but " presently there- 
after" Kinnoul, and his uncle the Earl of Morton, who 
had welcomed him at his landing, died. The inferior 
officers, left without a commander, fell into disorder, and 
there was trouble and contention among them, so that the 
purpose of this first expedition, the enlistment of Orkney- 
men, was defeated. 

The second division with which Montrose himself had 
intended to set forth in December, was more formidable 
at its outset, consisting of " twelve hundred soldiers ; 
officers for two regiments ; thirteen frigates fraught ; two 
vessels for convoys ; twelve brass guns, and provisions for 
about a month." This expedition sailed from Gottenburg, 
or from some place in its neighborhood, in January ; near 
the beginning of it, probably ; under the command of the 
fourth Earl of Kinnoul, brother of that one who died in 
Orkney ; but before the fleet lost sight of land it was in 



RETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND DEATH. 361 

trouble, and the winter voyage was very disastrous. Sir 
James Stewart of Coltness, Provost of Edinburgh, re- 
ports, under date of the 19th of February, 1650, thus : 
" There are more men landed this week in Orkney Islands 
from Montrose ; but the greatest part of his men and ves- 
sels are spoiled and lost ; for of twelve hundred he shipped 
from the sea side near Gottenburg, there are no more than 
two hundred landed in Scotland ; for when they had sailed 
about two leagues from shore, they were scattered by 
sticking in the ice ; many died ; others, after, got ashore 
and deserted, and they were much broken. There came 
only two ships, with two hundred soldiers and their 
officers ; twelve brass field-pieces ; and some small num- 
ber of arms, with a parcel of ammunition. Montrose 
himself is yet at Gottenburg, with some Scotch, English, 
and Dutch officers, waiting to see if he can get any 
moneys for them ; if not, they will desert him." 

Whether Montrose got any moneys or not is unknown ; 
but he did, somehow, get away from Gottenburg with 
small force, early in March, and, after safe voyage, landed 
in the Orkneys, where he was busy for some time, I sup- 
pose, enlisting men, and organizing his foreigners ; getting 
ready for action on the mainland. 

On the 26th of March, dating at Kirkwall in Orkney, 
he wrote : — 

For the Earl of Seaforth. 

My Lord : 

I received your Lordship's by Mr. May, who has con- 
firmed me in the knowledge of all your Lordship's noble 
and friendly carriages, for which, believe, I will serve you 
with my life, all the days it shall please God to lend me it. 
I am going to the mainland, and have no more leisure but 

31 



362 JAMES GKAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTKOSE. 

to assure you I shall tender your friends and interests as 
my own life ; and shall live or die, my Lord, your cousin 
and faithful friend and servant, Montrose. 

The letter from Seaforth brought " by Mr. May," came 
to Montrose at Gottenburg, with the despatches from the 
King ; and now, when he was about going to the main- 
land, he answered, showing himself in this letter, as in 
other letters, very grateful to Seaforth, who, though cau- 
tious of overt acts, had, in some way doubtless, been help- 
ful. But let us note that in this letter, as in a previous 
one to the same correspondent, Montrose seems not in 
good heart; he evidently did not like the business on 
which he had entered, and he had forebodings of evil. 
Two weeks later, however, the Captain-General was under 
way for the mainland, and, when near the Island of Flotta 
not far from the Pentland Frith, he issued his clear, deci- 
sive orders to the leader of his van, a tall, robust fellow 
with a long scar on his cheek : — 

Orders for Major- General Sir John Hurry. 
You are presently after the sight hereof to take a 
part of my company of Guard, with four companies of my 
life regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel George 
Drummond, together with other companies of Lieutenant- 
Colonel Henry Stewart's squadron, and immediately to 
emboat yourself, with what arms and ammunition doth 
belong, and set with this evening tide for the coast of 
Caithness, choosing the most convenient place for landing, 
as occasion shall serve ; and if, according to your intelli- 
gence, you find not your landing opposed, nor any forces 
making in a body against you, you are to march directly 
to the Ord, and those narrow passes betwixt Caithness and 



RETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND DEATH. 363 

Sutherland, for preventing the enemy's entry, and reducing 
such of the country people as shall offer to rise, according 
to your own best discretion and the rule of war in like 
cases. But if you shall find, according to your certain 
intelligence, that all the country of Caithness are in arms 
to resist you, and oppose the landing, in a real way of 
opposition or defence, then, and in that case, you are not 
to hazard to force it, but to set for Stranaver, and there to 
attempt your landing, as with most safety and conveniency 
you can. Where, if you should also find too much diffi- 
culty — as by appearance there cannot be — you are to 
apply a little higher, betwixt that and Kintail, which 
places are all for the King, and there make your descent, 
and use your best discretion in every thing as occurs. In 
all which cases you are still to send us frequent advertise- 
ments, as falls out : and observe punctually the premises 
at your highest peril. Given under our hand from ship- 
board, near the Island of Flotta, this 9th day of April, 
1650. Montrose. 

Sir John, acting under these orders, landed without 
difficulty on the north coast of Caithness, at or near 
Thurso : marching thence across the country to the south- 
eastern coast, he seized the Castle of Dunbeath, and 
placed a garrison in it under the command of Harry Gra- 
ham : then, according to orders, he marched, I suppose, 
ten miles along the coast south-westerly " directly to the 
Ord," and seized " those narrow passes " into Sutherland- 
shire. The Captain-General, following on with the main 
body of his forces, was at Thurso on the 14th of April, and 
wrote there his letter " For the Gentlemen and Heritors 
of the Sheriffdom of Caithness : " from which it appears 
that the King's Lieutenant-Governor and Cap tain- General 



364 JAMES GKAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

found no such welcome in Scotland as he had expected : 
therefore he in this letter informed these gentlemen and 
heritors that he would, at his departure, leave certain per- 
sons to receive " an oath of fidelity and allegiance to be 
subscribed by all and every one of you to his sacred 
Majesty." 

Marching southward then, across Caithness, the General 
joined his van under Sir John Hurry, and went into Suth- 
erlandshire by the pass of the Ord ; which was -at that 
time " the most dangerous bit of road in Scotland." High 
hills, crowded together, form a continuous ridge, running 
across the country from sea to sea, and dividing Caithness 
from Sutherlandshire ; the south-eastern end of it, coming 
to the shore at the Hill of Ord, turns northerly, and, for 
ten miles or so, runs along by the sea. There on the sea- 
ward side of the ridge, aloft on the edge of precipices, the 
giddy road stretched itself along ; and, in the latter days 
of April, sea-gulls, looking upwards in their flight, saw 
James Graham's army of strangers and Orkneymen wind- 
ing along on its perilous way, towards perils greater than 
that one. This army, so called, was a kind of skeleton 
one ; having officers for more men than were in the ranks : 
there were Orkneymen in numbers unknown ; of foreign 
troops a few hundreds ; and of cavalry none, or next to 
none. The men of these northern shires did not join this 
hopeless-looking army, marching for a King who was then 
coming to terms of agreement with the opponents of it. 
On the contrary, the Earl of Sutherland, with men of that 
shire, joined General David Leslie, who, with a well- 
appointed army, was marching northward : and the Mac- 
kenzies of the Earl of Seaforth staid quietly in their 
homes ; for that loyal Earl knew what was good for 
himself. 



BETUEN TO SCOTLAND, AND DEATH. 365 

From the Ord of Caithness, Montrose, who knew little 
or nothing of what was going on south of him, came down 
into Sutherlandshire, and marched along southerly, till, on 
the 27th of April, he came to a place called Corbiesdale, 
near the pass of Invercarron, and not far from the River 
Oikel. There, Colonel Strachen, with some squadrons of 
horse, in advance of Leslie's army and standing in am- 
bush, fell suddenly on the invaders. The Orkneymen, 
better men at sea than on land probably, fled without 
stroke at the foe : the strangers, foreign troops, stood to it 
for a while, and the officers fought bravely, doing their 
utmost, I suppose. Many of them fell dead on the field ; 
others. Sir John Hurry among them, were made prisoners. 
Montrose, in the thickest of the fight, it seems, got severe 
wounds; and at last his horse fell dead under him. A 
friend. Viscount Frendraught, himself seriously wounded, 
but sure of mercy, as prisoner, from his uncle, the Earl of 
Sutherland, gave his horse to Montrose, who could expect 
no mercy : and he, seeing all lost, escaped from the field 
with the Earl of Kinnoul and two gentlemen by name Sin- 
clair. The wounded Marquis, obliged soon, in that rough 
and pathless country, to leave his horse, changed garments 
with a peasant ; and, hiding his papers and badge of the 
Garter " under a tree," where they were afterwards found, 
he wandered on foot " up the River Oikel the whole en- 
suing night, and the next day, and the third day also, 
without any food or sustenance, and at last came into the 
country of Assint ; the Earl of Kinnoul, being faint for 
lack of meat, and not able to travel any farther, was left 
there among the mountains ; where, it was supposed, he 
perished. James Graham had almost famished, but that 
he fortuned, in his misery, to light upon a small cottage in 
that wilderness, where he was supplied with some milk 
31* 



366 JAMES GRAHAM, MAKQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

and bread." Toiling on westward into that barren, des- 
olate region, he fell at last into the hands of Macleod, 
Laird of Assint ; who imprisoned him in the Castle of 
Ardvraick, and then gave him up to General David Leslie. 
In Mr. Napier's Memoirs of Montrose, there is a chap- 
ter entitled Montrose and Charles the Second, which is 
not a pleasant one. Charles the First, it has been said, 
was not the worst of the Stuarts : but we cannot say that 
of the second Charles. He signed his treaty with the 
Covenanters at Breda, on the 13th of May, 1650 ; and on 
the 19th he sent a messenger — Sir William Flemming — 
to Montrose, bearing " a public letter," dated at Breda, 
the 15th of May, informing him that "it has pleased 
Almighty God " to give " a blessing to this treaty at 
Breda ; " and " our will and pleasure therefore is, and we 
hereby require and command you, not only to forbear all 
further acts of hostility against any of our subjects of that 
kingdom, but also, immediately upon the receipt of these 
our letters, to lay down arms, and to disband, and with- 
draw yourself and your forces out of the same." In a 
private letter he says, after some compliments, " I shall be 
careful to provide a subsistence for you," till I can do 
something better ; " and have, accordingly, ordered Coch- 
rane to pay 10,000 rix dollars to Sir Patrick Drummond, 
to your use." The letter ends thus : "I pray give credit 
to what Sir William Flemming shall say to you from me, 
and then you will be fully assured that I am your very 
affectionate friend, Charles R. 
Breda, 13th May, 1860." 

On the 18th May, Charles in his "Address" to "the 
President, and other members of Parliament," says, after 
referring to the " happy agreement : " " We have given 



RETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND DEATH. 367 

orders for the disbanding of those forces lately come from 
Orkney, and all who have joined with them, and for their 
present withdrawal out of the kingdom ; " and as, in his 
opinion, it is very desirable that they should go out of the 
country, " we therefore recommend very particularly unto 
you, to cause such conditions to be made for them, as shall 
be reasonable and necessary to free the kingdom immedi- 
ately from these troops, according to our express order in 
that behalf. Given at Breda the 18th May, 1650, in the 
second year of our reign." 

On the 19th May, Charles wrote his last letter to Mon- 
trose : — 

My Loud Montrose : This bearer, William Flem- 
ming, having many things to say to you from me, and he 
being better able to deliver them to you by word of mouth 
than I can by letter, I have given him full instructions to 
acquaint you with all the particulars of the treaty. I shall 
desire you, therefore, to give full credit to him ; and to me, 
that I am, and ever will be, your most affectionate friend, 

Charles R. 

The " full instructions " given to Flemming in writing, 
and dated 19th May, were these : — 

"1. You shall deliver my letter to Lord Montrose, and 
assure him of the continuance of my favor and affection 
to him. 

"2. If you find that the prevailing party now in Scot- 
land are not satisfied with the concessions I have granted 
to them, then Montrose is not to lay down arms : or if you 
find that those people do only treat with me to make Mon- 
trose to lay down arms, and that then they may do what 
they please, then he is not to lay down arms. 



868 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

*' 3. In case my friends in Scotland do not think fit that 
Montrose lay down arms, then as many as can may repair 
to him. 

" 4. You shall see if Montrose have a considerable num- 
ber of men ; and if he have, you must use your best en- 
deavor not to have them disbanded ; in which you are to 
advise with William Murray, and whom you shall think fit. 
But if Montrose be weak, then he should disband ; for it 
will do me more harm for a small body to keep together, 
than it can do me good. Howsoever, though they are dis- 
banded, there must be care had that they may not be lost, 
but entertained in other troops." 

Transit of news was slow two hundred years ago ; and 
therefore the heartless King, at the date of these instruc- 
tions, did not know that the little army of invaders had 
been very thoroughly disbanded ; and that the leader of it 
was then under sentence which would soon carry him 
where falsehoods are unknown. 

As a pendant to King Charles's letters and instruc- 
tions, we will read this extract from Sir James Balfour's 
Annals : — 

" Saturday, 25th May, 1650 : A letter from the King's 
Majesty to the Parliament, dated Breda, 12th May, 1650; 
showing that he was heartily sorry that James Graham 
had invaded this kingdom, and how he had discharged 
him from doing the same ; and earnestly desires the Es- 
tates of Parliament to do himself that justice as not to be- 
lieve that he was accessory to the said invasion in the least 
degree, — read. Also a double [copy] of his Majesty's 
letter to James Graham, dated 15th of May, 1650, com- 
manding him to lay down arms, and secure all the ammu- 
nition under his charge, — read in the House." "The 



RETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND DEATH. 369 

House remits to the committee of despatches to answer 
his Majesty's letter to the Parliament. The Marquis of 
Argyle reported to the House that himself had a letter 
from the Secretary, the Earl of Lothian, which showed 
him that his Majesty was no ways sorry that James Gra- 
ham was defeated, in respect, as he said, he had made 
that invasion without and contrary to his command." 

Mr. Mark Napier, comparing dates, doubts that Argyle 
had such letter as that ; doubts whether the lie, in this 
case, was Argyle's or the King's : it matters little, how- 
ever, for one lie more or less cannot affect the character of 
either of them. This King had now, as his proceedings 
in regard to Montrose show, come to agreement with the 
Covenanters. He, on his part, agreed to sign, not only 
the first Covenant, but also the Solemn League and Cov- 
enant ; to publish a Declaration, as prescribed to him, 
condemning the sinful acts of his father and the idolatry 
of his mother. He asserted, too, as we have seen, that 
Montrose had invaded Scotland without his sanction : and 
so the man got afterward his crown at Scone ; Argyle 
holding the sceptre in a double sense ; and Andrew Reid 
advancing moneys on the occasion, as we have been told. 
The crown, however, did not stick on the head at that 
time, Oliver CromweU being alive : but let us note here 
the fact that at last, after Cromwell's death, this man, this 
worthless Charles Stuart, was welcomed as King by the 
people of England, Ireland, and Scotland ; so strong was 
their faith in hereditary right. But our story lags, though 
the end is not far : henceforth it shall be given in the 
words of contemporary writers, with only such slight al- 
terations, insertions, and comments, as may serve to help 
it along. 



370 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

The Reverend James Frazer's Account of the conducting 
Montrose captive to Edinburgh.'^ 
"May 4th, 1650, he was taken, and the fourth day" 
thereafter " delivered to David Leslie at Tain," near the 
Dornoch Frith, in the north-east part of Ross-shire. 
" Montrose being now in the custody of his mortal en- 
emies, from whom he could expect no favour, yet expressed 
a singular constancy, and in a manner a carelessness of his 
own condition. He was conveyed with a guard over the 
River Conan, towards Beauly." Crossing that river, " they 
refreshed themselves at Lovat," a small hamlet in the 
northernmost part of Inverness-shire; where Mr. Frazer 
was then at home. He, continuing his narrative, says : 
" But noio I set down that which I was myself eye-witness 
of. The 7th of May, 1650, at Lovat, he sat upon a little 
shelty-horse without a saddle, but a quilt of rags and 
straw, and pieces of ropes for stirrups ; his feet fastened 
under the horse's belly with a tether ; a bit halter for a 
bridle ; a ragged, old, dark-reddish plaid ; a montrer cap 
called magirky on his head ; a musketeer on each side, 
and his fellow-prisoners on foot after him. Thus con- 
ducted through the country near Inverness, under the road 
to Muirtown, where he desired to alight, he called for a 
draught of water, being then in the first crisis of a high 
fever. And here the crowd from the town came forth to 
gaze. The two ministers " " wait here upon him to com- 
fort him : " Avith one of them, " Mr. John Annand," " the 
Marquis was well acquainted. At the end of the bridge, 
stepping forward, an old woman, Margaret MacGeorge, 
exclaimed and brauted, saying : ' Montrose, look above ; 



* See Memoirs of Montrose, vol. ii. p. 773, for this account, and others 
following it. 



RETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND DEATH. 371 

view these ruinous houses of mine which you occasioned 
to be burnt down when you besieged Inverness.' Yet he 
never altered his countenance ; but, with a majesty and 
state beseeming him, kept a countenance high." 

" At the cross, a table covered. The Magistrates treat 
him with wine; which he would not taste, but allayed" 
his thirst " with water. The stately prisoners, his officers, 
stood under a fore-stair and drank heartily. I remarked 
Colonel Hurry, a robust, tall, stately fellow, with a long 
cut on his cheek. All the way through the streets Mon- 
trose never lowered his aspect. The Provost, Duncan 
Forbes, taking leave of him at the town's end, said : ' My 
Lord, I am sorry for your circumstances.' He replied : ' I 
am sorry for being the object of your pity.' The Marquis 
was convoyed that night to Castle Stewart, where he 
lodged. From Castle Stewart, the Marquis is convoyed 
through Moray: by the way some loyal gentlemen wait 
upon his Excellency, most avowedly, and with grieved 
hearts ; such as the Laird of Culbin, Kinnaird ; Old Prov- 
ost Tulloch in Narden ; Tannochy, Tulloch ; Captain 
Thomas Mackenzie, Pluscarden ; the Laird of Cookstoun ; 
and old Mr. Thomas FuUerton, his acquaintance at college. 
He was overjoyed to see those about him ; and they were 
his " escort " forward to Forres, where the Marquis was 
treated ; and thence, after noon, convoyed to Elgin City, 
where all these loyal gentlemen waited on him, and diverted 
him all the time, with the allowance of the General," 
David Leslie. 

" In the morning Mr. Alexander Symons, parson of 
Duffus, waited on him at Elgin ; being college acquaint- 
ance with the Marquis ; four years his condisciple at St. 
Andrews. This cheered him wonderfully, as the parson 
often told me. Thence they convoyed him all the way to 



372 JAMES GKAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

the River Spey ; and a crowd of royalists flocked about 
him unchallenged. Crossing Spey, they lodged all night 
at Keith; and the next day, May 12th, being Sunday, the 
Marquis heard sermon there. A tent was set up for him 
in the fields, in which he lay. The minister, Mr. William 
Kinanmond, altering his ordinary," — preaching specially, 
1 suppose, — " chose for his theme and text the words of 
Samuel the prophet to Agag the King of the Amalekites, 
coming before him delicately : * And Samuel said. As thy 
sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be 
childless among women.' This unnatural, merciless man, 
so rated, reviled, and reflected upon the Marquis, in such 
invective, virulent, malicious manner, that some of the 
hearers, who were even of the swaying side, condemned 
him. Montrose, patiently hearing him a long time, and 
he insisting still, said : ' Rail on ; ' and so turned his back 
to him in the tent. But all honest men hated Kinanmond 
for this ever after. Montrose desired to stay in the fields 
all night, lying upon straw in the tent, till morning." 

Thus the procession, starting from Tain, in Ross-shire, 
on the Dornoch Frith, had marched, southerly, to Beauly, 
on a lake which is, properly, a continuation of the Moray 
Frith ; or, rather, the head of it : thence, turning north- 
easterly, it had passed through the city of Inverness, or 
near it, and, going along the shores of that Frith, had 
come to Elgin : thence, crossing the River Spey, it went 
forward, south-easterly, to Keith in Banff'shire, near the 
borders of Aberdeenshire. On Sunday, 12th of May, 
Montrose heard an abusive sermon from Mr. Kinanmond 
at Keith ; and he slept there, in his tent, on straw, at 
night, *' Monday after they march through the Mearns 
south," says Mr. Frazer, who cannot be right here : the 
distance from Keith to the Mearns, or Kincardineshire, 



RETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND DEATH. 373 

being forty miles, or more. The good man ceased to see 
the procession with his own eyes at Keith probably, and 
set down afterwards what he heard from other men who 
were present in his absence. The procession, however, 
did go through the Mearns south soon after Monday, 13th 
of May, and came into Forfarshire by crossing the North 
Esk River, which forms the northern boundary of that 
shire. The road, rising from the river, goes soon over high 
lands ; and from the heights, where they begin to slope 
southward, the doomed man looks down into the valley of 
the South Esk, beautiful in its green leaf and blossom of 
May. Before him, as the road runs, he sees the Castle of 
Kinnaird, where he wedded ; a little to the left of it his 
own place of Old Montrose ; and, beyond that, the Mar- 
itoun Law. Broad off on his left hand, seaward, the old 
city stretches itself along its low peninsula : ships lie at 
the farther end of it, and at its hither end are the well- 
remembered golf grounds. The wide basin, which he has 
seen so often, he sees now once again ; fisher-boats still 
speck it, sea-birds flap their wings over it : but the sad 
procession halts not here ; it moves onward to its end. 

" By the way," continues Mr. Frazer, " the Marquis 
came to his father-in-law's house, the Earl of Southesk's " 
Castle of Kinnaird, " where he visited two of his own 
children," — the youngest two, Robert and David ; the 
other one, James, being then abroad in Flanders ; and 
John, after long marches, was resting at the Kirk of Bel- 
lie ; and the mother of the boys had fallen asleep. " But 
neither at meeting, or at parting, could any change of his 
former countenance be seen, or the least expression heard 
which was not suitable to the greatness of his spirit, and 
the fame of his former actions, worth and valour. In 
transitu, his Excellency staid one night at Dundee ; and 

32 



374 JAMES GEAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

it is memorable that, though this town suffered more loss 
by his army than any else in the kingdom, yet were they 
so far from insulting over him, that the whole town ex- 
pressed a great deal of sorrow for his condition, and fur- 
nished him with clothes, and all other things suitable to 
his place, birth and person. 

*' At Leith he was received by the Magistrates of Edin- 
burgh, and thence convoyed up to the city by the water- 
gait of the Abbey ; and with him all the prisoners of 
quality on foot — about forty persons : but according to 
the sentence of the Parliament, the Marquis himself had 
the favour to be mounted on a cart-horse." Another ac- 
count says : "Upon the 18th day" of May, "about four 
in the afternoon, he was brought in at the Water-gate," 
which is the way leading from the sea to the Abbey of 
Holyrood House, " where he was met by the Magistrates, 
the guards, and the hangman ; the rest of the prisoners, 
being tied two and two, going before him. How soon 
they came within the port the Magistrates shewed him 
that order," which was an order of the Parliament to Gen- 
eral Leslie to deliver his prisoners to the city authorities ; 
and prescribing the fashion of the procession to the Tol- 
booth, or prison. " He was met," says Mr. Frazer, " at 
the Canongate under the Netherbow, by some other offi- 
cers ; and the executioner, hangman, in a livery coat, into 
whose hands he was delivered. There was framed for him 
a high seat in fashion of a chariot, upon each side of 
which were holes ; through these a cord being drawn cross- 
ing his breast and arms, bound him fast in that mock 
chair. The executioner then took off the Marquis's hat, 
and put on him [himself] his own bonnet ; and, this chariot 
being drawn by four horses," he " mounted on the first," 
or on one of the first two, " and solemnly drives along 
toward the Tolbooth ," which stood in the High Street, near 



RETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND DEATH. 375 

the Castle. The Canongate Street, which the procession 
entered by the Water-gait, at its eastern end near Holy- 
rood House, runs westward to the High Street, which 
continues, in the same direction, to the Castle ; the two 
streets forming one continuous, straight way, through the 
city from end to end ; and little, narrow, short lanes, or 
" closes," ran out of it, sloping to the hollows on each 
side. The new town, two hundred years ago, had not 
begun to be, and in that old main street stood then the 
city-mansions of many of the Scottish nobles ; and, among 
others, the Earl of Moray had his house there. M. de 
Graymond, a Frenchman, then in Edinburgh, writing to 
Cardinal Mazarin, says : " He," Montrose, " was paraded 
the whole length of the Canongate, and through the town, 
to the prison, fast bound upon a seat attached to the cart, 
and his head uncovered." " Few were there present that 
did not sympathize, or who forbore to express by their 
murmurs and mournful aspirations, how their hearts were 
touched by the nobility of his bearing amid such a compli- 
cation of miseries. He was surrounded by those guarding 
him ; and it has occasioned much talk since, that the pro- 
cession was made to halt in front of the Earl of Moray's 
house, where among other spectators, was the Marquis of 
Argyle, who contemplated his enemy from a window, the 
blinds of which were partly closed." 

The Marquis of Montrose, having been shown to his 
countrymen in this fashion, arrived, about nightfall, at 
the Tolbooth, or prison ; where he had, doubtless, hoped 
to rest that night in peace ; but visitors soon came in to 
him. Balfour's Annals say : " The House met this same 
day," Saturday, 18th of May, and "likewise by special 
ordinance, at six o'clock at night," having about noon, I 
suppose, adjourned for dinner and to see the procession 
after it, and then coming together again at evening when 



376 JAMES GEAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

the prisoner was safe in ward, " they sent Robert, Lord 
Burleigh, Sir James Hope of Hopetoun, George Porter- 
field of Glasgow, Mr. James Durham, and Mr. James 
Hamilton, ministers, to James Graham, to ask at him if 
he had any thing to say ; and to show him that he was to 
repair to the House to receive his sentence. They used 
some interrogatories and brought his answers in writing." 
These answers we would like to see, but they, and many 
other things, were not recorded, or the record has been 
lost. The answers, however, whatever they were, do not 
seem to have been satisfactory to the House, which sat 
late that Saturday night ; for after the return of this com- 
mittee with its report, another one was sent, as the record 
shows : " The House delays the execution," or say rather, 
the reading " of James Graham's sentence till Monday at 
10 hours the 20th. The House ordains Lord Burleigh, 
Sir James Hope, George Porterfield, Sir Archibald John- 
ston, Clerk Register, Sir Thomas Nicholson, King's Ad- 
vocate, Sir James Stewart, Provost of Edinburgh, to ques- 
tion James Graham anent Duke Hamilton and others ; and 
because he was desirous to understand of them formerly," 
as he told the other committee, " how it stood between 
the King and them, the Parliament ordained" this com- 
mittee " to show him the truth, that their Commissioners 
and the King's Majesty were agreed ; and that his Majesty 
was coming to this country." The Duke Hamilton men- 
tioned here is the same man who was Earl Lanerick ; and 
Argyle and company wished to know what he had been 
doing of late, and whether they could account him as friend 
or foe — a matter always doubtful theretofore. 

But in regard to answers which the first committee got 
from Montrose, we learn something from an anonymous 
manuscript found at Cumbernauld. " It was past seven 



RETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND DEATH. 377 

o'clock at night before he was entered into the Tolbooth, 
and immediately the Parliament met and sent some of their 
own number to examine him ; but he refused to answer 
any thing to them untill he should know in what terms 
they stood with the King ; which being reported to the 
Parliament they delayed proceedings against him till Mon- 
day ; and allowed their Commissioners [the second set] to 
tell him that the King and they were agreed. He desired 
that night to be at rest, for he was wearied with a long- 
some journey ; and, he said, ' the compliment they had 
put upon him that day was something tedious.' " The 
weary man got no rest till late that night ; nor did he get 
much on the next day, which was the Sabbath ; for, ac- 
cording to the same manuscript, " The next day, being 
Sunday, he was constantly attended by ministers and Par- 
liament men, who still pursued him with threatenings ; but 
they got no advantage of him." 

The Kirk of Scotland, which had excommunicated Mon- 
trose, now sent its ministers to bring him, if possible, to 
submission and confession of sin : and the following ac- 
count of their interview with the outcast comes at second 
hand from one who was present at it ; an old man's story 
of an event of his youth ; a story which he had told many 
times before Mr. Robert Woodrow wrote it down. 

" The Reverend Patrick Simpson's Testimony, as pre- 
served hy the Reverend Robert Woodrow. — This same 
time, Mr. Patrick Simpson told me he was allowed to go 
in with the ministers that went in to confer with the Mar- 
quis of Montrose, the day before his death, and was pres- 
ent at the time of their conference. His memory is so 
good that, although it be now sixty years or more since it 
was, I can entirely depend on his relation, even as to 
the very words ; and I set it down here as I wrote it 
32-^' 



378 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

from his own mouth, and read it over to him." " In the 
year 1650, the 20th of May, being Monday, the morning 
about eight of the clock, before the Marquis got his sen- 
tence, several ministers, Mr. James Guthrie, Mr. James 
Durham, Mr. Robert Trail, minister at Edinburgh ; and, 
if my author be not forgetful, Mr. Mungo Law, appointed 
by the Commission of the Great Assembly, went into the 
Tolbooth of Edinburgh where Montrose was. His room 
was kept by Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace. Being forfeited 
and excommunicated they only termed him Sir, and gave 
him none of his titles. Mr. James Guthrie began, and 
told him that there were several things might mar his 
light in this affair they were come to him about, which he 
would do well to lay to heart ; and he would hint at them 
before they came to the main point. 

" 1st. Somewhat of his natural temper, which was aspir- 
ing and lofty ; or to that purpose. 

" 2d. His personal vices, w^hich were too notorious. 
My author tells me he (Mr. Guthrie) meant his being given 
to women. 

" 3d. The taking a commission from the King to fight 
against his country, and raise a civil warwdthin our bowels. 
Montrose's direct answer to this my relator hath forgot. 

*' 4th. His taking Irish and Popish rebels and cut- 
throats by the hand, to make up of against his own coun- 
trymen. 

" 5th. The spoil and ravage his men made through the 
country ; also the much bloodshed by his cruel followers. 

" Montrose heard him patiently till he had done ; and then 
resumed all the particulars, and discoursed on them hand- 
somely, as he could well do, intermixing many Latin 
apothegms : only my author thought his way and expres- 
sion a little too airy and volage ; not so much suiting the 



KETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND DEATH. 379 

gravity of a nobleman. He granted that God had made 
men of several tempers and dispositions ; some slow and 
dull, others more sprightly and active ; and if God should 
withhold light on that account, he confessed he was one of 
those who love to have praise for virtuous actions. As for 
his personal vices, he did not deny but he had many ; but 
if the Lord should withhold light on that account, it might 
reach unto the greatest of saints, who wanted not their 
faults and failings. One of the ministers, here interrupt- 
ing him, said he was not to compare himself with the 
Scripture saints. He answered, ' I make no comparison of 
myself with them ; I only speak of the argument.' As to 
the taking of those men to be his soldiers, he said it was 
no wonder that the King should take any of his subjects 
to help him, when those who should have been his best 
subjects deserted and opposed him. ' We see,' said he, 
* what a company David took to defend him in the time of 
his strait.' There were some volitations to and fro upon 
that practice of David which are forgot. As to his men's 
spoiling and plundering the country, he answered : ' They 
knew that soldiers who wanted pay could not be restrained 
from spoilzie, nor kept under such strict discipline as other 
regular forces ; but he did all that lay in him to keep them 
back from it ; and for bloodshed, if it could have been 
thereby prevented, he would rather it had all come out of 
his own veins.' 

" Then falling on the main business, they charged him 
with breach of Covenant. To which he answered : ' The 
Covenant which I took, I own it and adhere to it. Bish- 
ops ! I care not for them : I never intended to advance 
their interest. But when the King had granted you all 
your desires, and you were every one sitting under his vine 
and under his fig tree ; that then you should have taken a 



380 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

party in England by the hand, and entered into a League 
and Covenant with them against the King, was the thing 
I judged it my duty to oppose to the yondmost ! ' In the 
progress of their discoursing, which my author hath forgot, 
the Marquis added : ' That course of theirs ended not but 
in the King's death and overturning the whole government.' 
When one of the ministers answered : ' That was a secta- 
rian party that rose up, and carried things beyond the 
true and first intent of them,' he said only, in reply : 
' Error is infinite.' After other discourses, when they were 
risen, and upon their feet to go away, Mr. Guthrie said : 

* As we were appointed by the commission of the General 
Assembly to confer with you to bring you, if it could be 
obtained, to some sense of your guilt, so we had, if we 
had found you penitent, power from the same Commission 
of the General Assembly to release you from that sentence 
of excommunication under which you lie. But now since 
we find it far otherwise with you, and that you maintain 
your farther course, and all these things for which that 
sentence passed upon you, we must, with sad hearts, leave 
you, under the same, unto the judgment of the great God, 
having the fearful apprehension, that what is bound on 
Earth God will bind in Heaven.' To which he replied : 

* I am very sorry that any actions of mine have been ofi'en- 
sive to the Church of Scotland ; and I would with all my 
heart be reconciled with the same. But since I cannot 
obtain it on any other terms, — unless I call that my sin 
which I account to have been my duty, — I cannot for all 
the reason and conscience in the world.' This last expres- 
sion is somewhat short ; but my author tells me he remem- 
bers it distinctly, and the Marquis had those very words, 
neither more nor less." 

This account is evidently, in substance, an honest one. 



EETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND DEATH. 381 

The " main business " of these Commissioners of the Gen- 
eral Assembly was, breach of the Covenant, opposition, in 
public matters, to the Kirk of Scotland. If Montrose had 
confessed himself sinful in this, and submitted himself to 
the Kirk, other sins would have found easy forgiveness. 
In regard to the second charge, " Personal vices," the reader 
will remember, that when Lord Sinclair searched Mon- 
trose's houses, he found in one of them some " letters 
written to him by ladies, in his youth, flowered with Arca- 
dian compliments." This, Mr. Napier says, is the only 
foundation for the charge in the text ; rather slight ground 
certainly for a serious charge against Mm. But the accused 
man said in answer to this charge : "As for his personal 
vices he did not deny but he had many." We will there- 
fore, in default of other testimony, take his own word on 
this matter, and let his personal vices rest on that ; his 
word, good to us in other cases, shall be good here too. 

Mr. Woodrow's account of what he learned from Mr. 
Simpson continues thus : " The Parliament would allow 
him (Montrose) no knife, or weapon, in the room with 
him, lest he should have done harm to himself. When he 
heard this, he said to his keeper : ' You need not be at so 
much pains ; before I was taken I had a prospect of this 
cruel treatment ; and, if my conscience would have allowed 
me, I could have despatched myself.' After the ministers 
had gone away and he had been a little alone, (my author 
being in the outer room with Colonel Wallace,) he (Mon- 
trose) took his breakfast, a little bread dipped in ale. 
He desired to have a barber to shave him, which was 
refused him ; my author thinks on the former reason. 
When Colonel Wallace told him, from the persons sent to, 
he could not have that favour, my author heard him say : 
' I would not think but they would have allowed that to a 
dog.'" 



382 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

On this day, Monday, 20th of May, " The Parliament 
met about ten o'clock ; and immediately on the down- 
sitting, James Graham was brought before them by the 
magistrates of Edinburgh, and ascended the place of delin- 
quents." " He presented himself in a suit of black cloth 
and a scarlet coat to his knee, trimmed with silver galouns, 
lined with crimson tafta ; on his head a bever hat and a 
silver band : he looked somewhat pale, lank-faced, and 
hairy." " After the Lord Chancellor had spoken to him, 
and, in a large discourse, declared the progress of all 
his rebellions, he showed him that the House gave him 
leave to speak for himself ; which he did in a long dis- 
course, with all reverence to the Parliament, he said, 
' since the King and their Commissioners were accorded.' " 
Sir James Balfour, who gives this account of the scene in 
Parliament, does not give the " long discourse ; " which, 
therefore, we will now give from the manuscript found at 
Cumbernauld : — 

" Since you have declared to me that you have agreed 
with the King, I look upon you as if his Majesty were 
sitting amongst you ; and in that relation I appear with 
this reverence, bareheaded. My care has always been to 
walk as became a good Christian and a loyal subject. I 
did engage in the first Covenant, and was faithful to it. 
When I perceived some private persons, under color of 
religion, intend to wring the authority from the King, and 
to seize on it for themselves, it "svas thought fit for the 
clearing of honest men, that a bond [the Cumbernauld 
Bond] should be subscribed, wherein the security of 
religion was sufficiently provided for. For the League, 
[Solemn League and Covenant with the English,] I thank 
God I was never in it ; and so could not break it. How 
far Religion has been advanced by it, and what sad conse- 



RETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND DEATH. 383 

quences followed on it, this poor, distressed kingdom can 
witness. When his late Majesty had, by the blessing of 
God, almost subdued those rebels that rose against him in 
England, and a faction of this Kingdom went in to the 
assistance of the rebels, his Majesty gave commission to 
me to come into this Kingdom, to make a diversion of 
those forces which were going from this against him. I 
acknowledged the command was most just, and I conceived 
myself bound in conscience and duty to obey it. What 
my carriage was in this country many of you may bear 
witness. Disorders in arms cannot be prevented ; but they 
were no sooner known than punished. Never was any 
man's blood spilt but in battle, and even then many thou- 
sand lives have I preserved ; and I dare here avow, in the 
presence of God, that never a hair of Scotsman's head, 
that I could save, fell to the ground ; and, as I came in 
[then] upon his Majesty's warrant, so upon his letter did 
I lay aside all interests and retire. And as for my coming 
in at this [last] time, it was by his Majesty's just com- 
mands, in order to the accelerating the treaty betwixt him 
and you ; his Majesty knowing that whenever he had 
ended with you, I was ready to retire upon his call. I 
may say, that never subject acted upon more honorable 
grounds, nor by [more] lawful a power [than] I did in 
these services. And, therefore, I desire you lay aside all 
prejudice, and consider me as a Christian in relation to 
the justice of the quarrel, as a subject in relation to my 
royal master's commands, and as your neighbour in rela- 
tion to the many lives I have preserved in battle ; and 
be not too rash ; but let me be judged by the laws of 
God, the laws of nature and nations, and the laws of this 
land ; if otherwise, I do here appeal from you to the 
righteous Judge of the world, who one day must be your 



384 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

Judge and mine, and who always gives out righteous 
judgments." 

"To him," says Balfour, "the Lord Chancellor (Lou- 
don) replied, punctually proving him, by his acts of hos- 
tility, to be a person most infamous, perjured, treacherous ; 
and of all that ever this land brought forth, the most cruel 
and inhuman butcher of his country ; one whose bound- 
less pride and ambition had lost the father [Charles the 
First], and, by his wicked counsels, had done what in 
him lay to destroy the son likewise. He made no reply, 
but was commanded to sit down on his knees, and receive 
his sentence, which he did." The man had come before 
his peers, not for trial, nor to judgment, but to receive his 
sentence — a sentence passed in his absence. Before he 
was brought into Edinburgh, *' the Parliament, upon the 
17th of May in the morning, . . . appointed a commit- 
tee to prepare and give in their opinion what was fittest to 
be done ; who that same forenoon gave in their report in 
writing, which was approven, thus : — 

" That how soon he should come to the town, he should 
be met at the port by the Magistrates and hangman ; that 
he should be tied upon a cart, bare-headed ; that the hang- 
man should ride upon the horse, covered, before him, and 
so carry him through the town ; that he should be hanged 
on a gibbet at the Cross of Edinburgh till he died, and his 
history and declaration hanged about his neck ; and hang 
three hours thereafter in the view of the people ; there- 
after he should be headed and quartered ; his head to be 
fixed at the prison house of Edinburgh ; and his legs and 
arms to be fixed at the ports of the towns of Stirling, 
Glasgow, Perth and Aberdeen ; and, if he repented, that 
the bulk of his body should be buried, by pioneers, in the 
Gray-friars : if not, to be buried in the Burghmoor." 



RETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND DEATH. 385 

*' He behaved himself all this time in the House," says 
Balfour, " with a great deal of courage and modesty, un- 
moved and undaunted, as appeared ; only he sighed two 
several times, and rolled his eyes alongst all the corners of 
the house ; and, at the reading of the sentence, he lifted 
up his face without any word speaking." The Reverend 
Robert Trail's statement, differing a little from Balfour's, 
runs thus : " After it [the sentence] had been fully read, 
he answered, that ' according to our Scots proverb a mes- 
senger should neither be headed nor hanged ! ' My Lord 
Loudon, being then President of Parliament, replied very 
well ; that it was he, and such as he, that were a great 
snare to Princes, and drew them to give such bloody com- 
missions. After that he was carried back to prison. The 
Commission of the Kirk, then sitting, did appoint Mr. 
James Hamilton, Mr. Robert Baillie, Mr. Mungo Law and 
me to go and visit him in the prison : for he being some 
years before excommunicated, none except his nearest re- 
lations might converse with him : but by a warrant from 
the Kirk, we staid a while with him about his soul's con- 
dition. But we found him continuing in his old pride, 
and taking very ill what was spoken to him, saying: 
* I pray you, gentlemen, let me die in peace.' It was 
answered, that he might die in true peace, being reconciled 
to the Lord and his Kirk. He went aside to a comer of 
his chamber, and there spoke a little time with Mr. Robert 
Baillie alone ; and thereafter we left him. Mr. Baillie, at 
our coming out of the Tolbooth, told us that what he 
spoke to him was only concerning some of his personal 
sins in his conversation, but nothing concerning the things 
for which he was condemned. We returned to the Com- 
mission, and did show unto them what had passed amongst 
us. They, seeing that for the present he was not desiring 

33 



386 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

of relaxation from his censure of excommunication, did 
appoint Mr. Mungo Law and me to attend on the morrow 
upon the scaffold, at the time of his execution, that in 
case he should desire to be relaxed from his excommuni- 
cation, we should be allowed to give it unto him in the 
name of the Kirk ; and to pray with him, and for him, 
that what is loosed on Earth might be loosed in Heaven." 
And so these ministers left him alone to prepare himself, 
as he best could, to die in peace. Mr. Robert Baillie, to 
whom he spoke privately, but " only concerning some of 
his personal sins in his conversation," says in his Letters 
and Journals not a word of this interview ; indeed, not a 
word about any matter relating to Montrose after his cap- 
ture ; which, in a man so communicative generally, is 
rather remarkable. Mr. Trail says: "He [Montrose] 
being some years before excommunicated, none except his 
nearest relations might converse with him ; " but the Cum- 
bernauld manuscript says : " His friends were not suffered 
to come near him ; and a guard was kept in the chamber 
beside him, so that he had no time or place for his private 
devotionS) but in their hearing ; yet it is acknowledged by 
them all that he rested as kindly those nights, except 
sometimes when at prayers, as ever they themselves did." 
Sometimes when at prayers : this man, then, whose " in- 
tolerable and evil pride made him hard to be guided " by 
these ministers of the Kirk, did submit himself to Him who 
is Judge too of the Kirk and its ministers, and who can 
loose in Heaven what is not loosed on Earth. 

After the prisoner had listened in the Parliament House 
to the reading of his sentence, — a sentence to be executed 
on the morrow, — and had returned to his prison-house ; 
and after departure of the ministers, was alone there, he 
wrote those lines beginning, — 

" Let them bestow on every airth a limb," — 



KETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND DEATH. 



387 



lines characteristic of the man who entered, long ago, on 
an enterprise which he knew to be "very desperate" for 
himself. Forfeited by the State, excommunicated by the 
Church, a price set on his head, so that whoso would might 
slay him, not only with impunity but with certainty of 
reward, he had traversed Scotland over and over again, 
fearless of dangers ; and now, when the horrible end was 
near and sure, he would get acquainted with that too, and 
so make himself master of it. Having conned over the 
death-sentence till he could sing it to himself, he wrote 
down the verse, and then slept very quietly ; praying, at 
intervals, when he woke. 

Tuesday, the 21st of May, 1650, the last of the days, 
had now arrived. At no time careless of his personal 
appearance, Montrose was, on the tnorning of this day, 
specially attentive to it. While combing and arranging 
his long hair, some one asked him : " Why is James Gra- 
ham so careful of his locks r" He replied : " While this 
head is mine, I will adorn it ; to-night, when it is yours, 
do with it as you will : " and he arrayed him as for a 
bridal. " In his down-going from the Tolbooth to the 
place of execution, he was very richly clad in fine scarlet 
laid over Avith rich silver lace ; his hat in his hand ; his 
bands and cuffs exceeding rich ; his delicate white gloves 
on his hands ; his stockings of incarnate silk ; his shoes, 
with their ribbons, on his feet ; and sarks [embroidered 
linen] provided for him, with pearling [lace] above ten 
pounds the Elne. All these were provided for him by his 
friends ; and a pretty cassock put on him upon the scaffold 
wherein he was hanged." These trappings, hung about 
such a man, were in their right place, and altogether be- 
coming ; like ornaments on a temple noble without them. 
Men, a world of them, may combine to degrade a noble 



388 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

one, but they cannot do it. " It becomes them better to 
be hangmen," this one said, " than me to be hanged." 

Thus arrayed for his triumphal march, the Marquis of 
Montrose, on that Tuesday morning, came forth from the 
Tolbooth, near the Castle-hill, and, with large guard of 
soldiers, moved eastward down the High Street toward 
St. Giles Church. There, east of the cross and near it, in 
the open market-place, stood the gallows, " a large four- 
square scaffold, breast-high," or more ; and " in the midst 
of it was planted a gibbet of thirty feet height." The 
old street that day was filled with people ; doorway, stair- 
way, balcony, window, every open place on the walled 
sides of it, was full of life looking out on this death-scene. 
The central figure of it was a man thirty-eight years of 
age : proudest man of all that host, he had braved for 
years the public opinion of Scotland ; and yet he was now 
well pleased that so many had come to see him die. He 
" stept along the street with so great state, and there ap- 
peared in his countenance so much beauty, majesty, and 
gravity, as amazed all the beholders ; and many of his 
enemies did acknowledge him to be the bravest subject in 
the world; and in him a gallantry that graced all the 
crowd ; more beseeming a monarch than a mere peer ; and 
in this posture he stept up to the scaffold ; " where, 
among the magistrates, or near them, stood Mr. Robert 
Trail and Mr. Mungo Law, ministers, appointed, as we 
remember, by the Kirk to attend Montrose *' at the time 
of his execution." " But," says Mr. Trail in his report, 
" he did not at all desire to be released from excommu- 
nication in the name of the Kirk ; yea, he did not look 
towards that place in the scaffold where we stood ; only he 
drew aside the magistrates, and spake awhile with them ; 
and then went up the ladder, in his red scarlet cassock, in 



RETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND DEATH. 389 

a very stately manner, and never spoke a word." But the 
stately man said to Mr. Trail and other ministers, the day 
before this : "I am very sorry that any actions of mine 
have been offensive to the church of Scotland; and I 
would, with all my heart, be reconciled with the same ; 
but since I cannot obtain it on any other terms — unless I 
call that my sin which I account to have been my duty — 
I cannot for all the reason and conscience in the world." 
This last expression is, as Mr. Woodrow said, somewhat 
short ; but the meaning of it is plain : All your argu- 
ments, your reasons, all your appeals to my conscience, 
cannot induce me to be unbound on earth by means of a 
falsehood : I cannot, he says : and he would, therefore, 
go hence with the truth on his lips, and in his heart, and 
meet his Maker so. The church, whose blessed office it is 
to lead the departing one gently to the confines of the 
Seen, and to give him up there, without conditions, to 
Him who is unseen, mistook here, once again, its func- 
tion ; and it had, therefore, to stand aside and see this 
man go away erect, in his scarlet cassock, without speak- 
ing a submissive word to it. 

The Reverend James Frazer, who saw the procession 
with his *' own eyes," saw this death-scene too, or he got 
report of it from some one who was present there ; and 
his account of it differs somewhat from Mr. Trail's. 

*' The ministers, because he was under the sentence of 
excommunication, would not pray for him ; and, even on 
the scaffold, were very bitter against him. Being desired 
to pray apart, he said : ' I have already poured out my 
soul before the Lord, who knows my heart, and into whose 
hands I have committed my spirit; and he hath been 
pleased to return me a full assurance of peace in Jesus 
Christ my Redeemer: and therefore, if you will not join 
33* 



390 JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 

with me in prayer, my reiterating it again will be but 
scandalous to you and me : ' so, closing his eyes, and hold- 
ing up his hands, he stood a good space with his inward, 
devout ejaculations, being perceived to be mightily moved 
all the while," making his silent appeal to Him whose 
judgments are just. His prayer over, he called for the 
executioner, and gave him four pieces of gold: then the 
executioner, according to the sentence, hanged about his 
neck his book (Life by Wishart), declaration, and other 
papers, and the officers in attendance tied his hands. So, 
in his scarlet cassock, " he went up the ladder to the 
top of that prodigious gibbet. ... He had expected and 
desired to be headed ; " to die as befitted his name and 
place ; and he had hoped, almost to the last, that it might 
be so. Now the proud man, seeing the fatal rope, looked 
out on the crowd of people below, and asked : " How long 
shall I hang here ? " and these were the last words of 
James Graham, Marquis of Montrose. Stepping forward, 
he gave a signal to the executioner that he was ready to 
go : straightway he passed 

•< To where beyond these voices there is peace." 

This life, ending on the gallows, was not what men call 
a successful one ; nevertheless, on it and others like it 
stand orders of nobility to this day ; and, when such basis 
altogether fails, then shall fall, not orders of nobility only, 
but higher and better things. 



INDEX 



TO 



JAMES GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. 



Argyle. Archibald Campbell, Earl and Marquis. Of doubtful loyalty, 
159. — King invites him to Berwick, but he does not go, 168. — His feud 
with Montrose, 171, 172. — Ill favored, 172. — His character, 172, 211.— 
Leader of Covenanters, 172. — Dispute with Montrose in Parliament, 176. 
.— His dealings with the Atholmen and Ogilvies, 176, 177. — Got " exon- 
eration " from Parliament, 178. ^Charged Montrose with delay in bring- 
ino- up his regiments, 177. — Bond to make him Dictator, 178. — Accuses 
Montrose of the Cumbernauld Bond, 181, 182. — Montrose names Argyle 
as the man who aimed at Dictatorship, and who spoke of deposing the 
King, 185, 189. — Argyle very powerful in Scotland, 187. — Stewart's state- 
ments about Argyle, 189 to 191. — Held the sceptre when the King 
opened Parliament, 198. — His fears and flight at time of the Incident, 199, 
200. — Made Marquis, 202. — Intimacy with Hamilton, 209. — Cunning 
ways, 211.— A cross-eyed Presbyterian Jesuit, 211. — His attempt to 
induce Montrose to join his party, 215. —His encroachments in the High- 
lands, and the enmity to him there, 231. — His slow pursuit of Montrose, 
242 to 248.— His proclamation against Montrose, 243. — His attack of Mon- 
trose at Fy vie Castle, 247 — Lays down his commission, 248. — His op- 
pression of Highland clans, 250. — Refuses command of armies against 
Montrose, 253. — Defeated by Montrose at Inverlochy, 256. — His con- 
duct, 257. — General Baillie's report of him, 277. — His castle burned by 
Ogilvies and Macleans, 279. — Urges Baillie to attack Montrose, 282. — His 
report to the Parliament about the King and Montrose, 309. — Sees Mon- 
trose Avhen going to prison, 375. 

BAILLIE, Reverend Robert. Quotations from, about Episcopal forms, 
145, 146.— Rothes brought in Montrose, 147. — Armament of himself and 
boy, 165.— Reports of Hamilton, 165. — About demands on I^ng, 170.— 

(391) 



392 INDEX. 

About the clemency of Montrose, 170. — About Montrose's damnable 
bond, 179. — About Alexander Leslie, 183. — About the paper found m 
Montrose's charter chest, 197. — About Montrose and his friends at New- 
castle, 181. — About the Incident, 200. — About agreement with the King 
by Argyle, 201. — About Alexander Henderson and Will Murray, 202. — 
About Hamilton and Argyle, their Intimacy, 209. — About Henderson's 
apology, 210. — About Argyle 's cunning ways, 211. — About Montrose's 
interviews with the King, 213, 214. — About formation of the Solemn 
League and Covenant, 219. — About Hamilton's ambiguity, 220. — Earl 
Lancrick, 221. — About Montrose's "havoc" in the north of England, 
225. — About Montrose and his "cruel villains," 245. — His discoveries 
in regard to the Puritans, 329. — One of the Commissioners to the King 
at the Hague, 342. — Visits Montrose in prison, 385. 

Baillie, William, Lieutenant-General. His birth, &c., 253, 254. — Ap- 
pointed commander-in-chief of Covenanters' army to serve against 
Montrose, 254. — His pursuit of Montrose from Dundee, 2G2, 263. — His 
account of his pursuit of Montrose, 270, 271. — Defeated by Montrose at 
Alford, 272, 274. — His report of Argyle, 277. — His defeat at Kilsythe, 
and his account of it, 278, 284. 

Battles. Of Tippermuir, 234, 235. — Aberdeen, 241 . — Inverlochy , 256, 257. 
Dundee, 262. — Aulderne, 265, 267. — Alford, 273, 274. — Kilsythe, 280, 284. 

— Philiphaugh, 293, 294. — Corbiesdale, .365. 

Bishops. Brief sketch of their history after the Beformation, 148 to 152. 

Tulchan bishops, 149. 
Burleigh, Lord. Elected President of Scottish Parliament, 175, 196. — 

Defeated by Montrose at Aberdeen, 242. 

Carnigie, Sir David, father-in-law of Montrose. Dispute with him, 157. 
— In contact with him again at Forfar, 158. — Loyal or neutral, 158. — 
Appears before Committee of Estates with Montrose's son, .306. 

Carnigie, Magdalene. Daughter of Sir David, 134.— Married Mon- 
trose, 137. — Her death, 305. — Brief history of her, and her char- 
acter, 305, 306. 

COLQUHOUN, Sir John. Marries Lilias Graham, sister of Montrose, 12X 

— Fight of his clan with McGregors, 123. — Absconds with Katharine, 
his wife's sister, 141, 142. 

Committee of Estates. Formed, 153. — Became the Eevolutionary 
Committee, 153. — Manner of doing business, 171. — New Committee 
appointed by Parliament, half of it to be with the army, 176. — Montrose 
moves to exclude from its sessions persons not members of it, 178. — 
Depo-sitions before it relating to the battle of Tippermuir, 236, 237. — Its 
Proclamation offering a reward for Montrose, alive or dead, 243. 

Covenant. How formed, 153. — Montrose's signature on it, 153. — People 
subscribe with oath, 154. — Carried forward beyond its original intent, 
212. — Solemn League and Covenant formed, 259. 

CRO:knvELL, Oliver, 219, 220. — Anecdote of him and Andrew Eeid, 238. — 
His opinion of gentlemen, 240. — In Ireland, 351. — Prince Rupert got 
some knowledge of him in England, 355. —At Dunbar, 295. 



INDEX. 393 

FoRRETT, William. Tutor of Montrose at Glasgow, 125, 126. — Books in 
his keeping, 125. — Comes into Perth with Montrose's sons, 23G.~ 
Marches with the army, 248. — Leaves the army at Loch Tay, 251. 

Gordon, Viscount Aboyne, second son of Huntly. With the King at 
Newcastle, 1G4. — On board Hamilton's fleet in the Frith of Forth, 105. 

— Arrives at Aberdeen by sea, and raises an army there for the King, 

166. — Marches south, and is defeated by Montrose, 166, 167. — His mil- 
itary adviser. Colonel Gun, 165, 160. — End of his military expedition, 

167. — His vacillation, 272. — Capricious, 276. — Leaves the army after 
battle of Kilsythe, 289. — Joins Montrose, and then deserts him, 299, 301. 

— His correspondence with Montrose, 314. 

Gordon, Lord George, oldest son of Marquis of Huntly. With his 
father prisoner in Edinburgh Castle, 164. — In Argyle's army, 244. — 
Joins Montrose, 258. — His death at the battle of Alford, 273. — His de- 
votion to Montrose, 274. 

Gordon, Lord Lewis, youngest son of Huntly. Joins his brother at 
Aberdeen with one thousand men, 166. — In Argyle's army, 244. — Joins 
Montrose, 258. — His character, 301. 

Graham, Beatrix, youngest sister of Montrose, 119.— At Mugdok, 126, 
127. — Residing with Lilias at Kossdhu, 114. — Married Drummond, 
Master of Maderty, 233. 

Graham, David, fourth son of Montrose. His name and age, 168. — In- 
terview with his father, 373. 

Graham, Dorothea, third sister of Montrose, 119. — Her marriage and 
wedding party, 132, 133. 

Graham, Harry. Natural brother of Montrose, 228. — Made prisoner, 228. 

— Goes into exile with Montrose, 321. — Placed in command of Castle of 
Dunbeath, 363. 

Graham, James, second son of Montrose. Born at Kinnaird, 141. — Visits 
his father at Perth, 236. — Marched vrith the army to Brechin, where he 
left It, 240. — Made prisoner by the Covenanters, 260. — Released, he goes 
abroad, .320. — In Flanders at time of his father's death, 373. 

Graham, John, eldest son of Montrose. Born at Kinnaird, 141. — His 
age, 168. — Joined his father's army at Perth, 236. — His marches with 
the army, and death, 259, 260. 

Graham, John, of Balgowen. Residence of, 122. — Guardian of Mon- 
trose, 127. 

Graham, John, of Ochil. Residence of, 122. — Guardian of Montrose, 126. 

Graham, Katharine, fourth sister of Montrose, 118.— After her mother's 
death, lived with Lilias at Rossdhu, 131.— Absconded with Sir John 
Colquhoun, 142. 

Graham, Lilias, eldest sister of Montrose, 119. — Married Sir John Col- 
quhoun, 124. 

Graham, Margaret, second sister of Montrose, 119. — Married Lord Na- 
pier, 123. — Her character, 134. — Her death, 134. 

Graham, Patrick, of Inchbrakie. Residence of, 122. — Guardian of Mon- 
trose, 127. 



394 INDEX. 

Graham, Patrick, younger, of Inchbrakie, called Black Pate, 231.— His 
battle with the Campbells, and victory, 313. 

Graham, Robert, third son of Montrose. Brought by the Earl of South- 
esk before the Committee of Estates, 306. — Interview with his father, 373. 

Graham, Robert, of Morphie. Residence of, 122. — Guardian of Mon- 
trose, 127. 

Graham, Sir William, of Braco. Residence of, 122. — Guardian of Mon- 
trose, 127. 

Graham, William, Earl of Monteith, kinsman of Montrose. His letter 
to the King about Montrose, 172, 173. 

Hamilton, James, Marquis and Duke. Presents Montrose at Court, 143. 

— Instances of his duplicity, H3, 154, 155, 211, 220. — Changes his tone to 
the Covenanters, 156. — Dissolves Assembly at Glasgow, 157. — In the 
Frith of Forth, with fleet and army from England, 165. — His mother 
will shoot him if he lands, 165. — Gives Viscount Aboyne a military 
adviser, 165. — Denounced by Montrose, 187. — Fled with Argyle at the 
time of Incident, 200. — Intimacy with Argyle, 209. — A double dealer, 
211. — Sir Philip Warwick's report of him, 211. — Made Duke, 214.— 
Accused by Montrose of treason, and imprisoned by the King, 221.^ 
Marches with an army into England, and is defeated and beheaded, 335. 

Henderson, Reverend Alexander, 154. — Goes on a mission to Ab- 
erdeen with Montrose, 155. — King gave him revenue of chapel royal, 
202. — Out of favor with leading Covenanters, 202. — His apology in the 
Assembly, 209, 210, —. His conference with Montrose, 216 to 218.— Personal 
appearance, 217. — His inclination to serve the Iving, 217. 

Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles First. A Catholic, 147. — Her influ- 
ence with the King, 201. Her escape in '-< night waly-cot," 213,214.— 
Montrose's interview with her, 213, 214. — Her correspondence with 
3Iontrose, 323, 325. — Her household in Paris, 328. — Recommends 
Charles Second to make terms with Covenanters, .345. 

Highlanders. Campbells, 176, 177.— Colquhouns' and McGregors' fight, 
124. — Many clans join Jlontrose, 249. — Description of them, 249. — En- 
mity to Argyle, 250. — Their fear of cannon and cavalry, 278. — Strip- 
ping for battle, 281, 282, — Go into battle with heads down, 283, 284. 

HuNTLY, George Gordon, Marquis of. Anecdote of him, 139. — A Ro- 
man Catholic, and obnoxious to the Kirk, 159. — In arms in opposition 
to the Covenanters, 159, 160. — Lieutenant for the King in the north, 160. 

— His agreement with Montrose, 162, 163. — Carried prisoner to Edin- 
burgh, 164, — His loyalty, 205. — His jealousy or dislike of Montrose, 
276. — Conference with Montrose, 307, — Indecision and backwardness 
to aid Montrose, 309. 

Hurry, Sir John. General for Covenanters, 260. — Captures James, sec- 
ond son of Montrose, 260. — His pursuit of the royalists, 262, 263.— Re- 
treats himself, followed by Montrose, 265. — Reenforced, he attacks Mon- 
trose at Aulderne, and gets defeat, 265 to 267.— Flight to General Baillie, 
267. T- " Pretending indisposition," withdraws himself from Baillie, 
871. — Joins Montrose, 314. — 3Iessenger between Montrose and Ru- 



INDEX. 395 

pert, 336. — Leads the van of Montrose's army, 362, 363. — Made pris- 
oner at Corbiesdale, 365.-- His personal appearance, 371. 

Irish Troops. Landed on west coast, and marched to Blair- Athole, 230, 
232. — Baillie's account of them, 245. — Their marches, and anecdotes of 
them, 295, 296. 

Johnson, Archibald. A prominent lawyer, 174. -^ His letter about Mon- 
trose, 174. — His report of Montrose in Parliament, 176. — Remarkable 
libel against Montrose framed by him, 195. 

King Charles First. Coronation in Edinburgh, 141. --. Accession to 
throne, 151. — Guided by Laud, 151. — Requests Lord Chancellor Hay to 
give precedence to bishops, 152. ---Acts offensive to nobles, 151, 152. — 
His want qf frankness, 156. — Hia pacification at Berwick, 168. -^ Invites 
Scottish nobles to a conference at Berwick, 168. — His influence with 
Montrose, 169. — Letter from Montrose to him, 173. — His right to 
throne of Scotland, 175. — The Plotters, Montrose and others, urge him 
to come to Scotland, 184. — His letters to Montrose, 191, 207, 208, 210, 292, 

^fc604, 315, 320, 324, 326. — Montrose's letters to him, 186,227,256,257,317, 
318. — Arrival in Edinburgh, 198. — Promises to release Montrose, 198. — 
His troubles, the Incident, and the massacre in Ireland, 201.— By bargain 
with the Covenanters, releases Montrose, 202, — Rewards his enemies, 
202. -r- His attack on the Kirk, 206. — His want of truthfulness and his 
weakness, 212. — Interview with Montrose and Hamilton, 214. — Com- 
missions Montrose, 222. '— Proposes himself to join Montrose, 269.^ 
His infirmity of purpose, 293. — His attempt to join Montrose, 303, 304. 

— Places himself in the hands of the Scots, and orders Montrose to dis- 
band, 316, 317. — The Scots give him up to the English, 324. — Seized 
by the English army, 327. — Flight to the Isle of Wight, 328, 329.— His 
death, 338. 

King Charles Second. His first negotiation with Montrose, 338. — Mon, 
trose's advice to him, 344. — Gives commission to Montrose, 345. — His 
pegotiations with the Covenanters, 342 to 358. ^ His letters to Montrose, 
356 to 358. — His heartless dealing with Montrose, 366 to 369. 

King James Sixth of Scotland, First of England. Favors bishops, 148. 

— Signed the old Covenant, 149. — Anecdotes of, 150. — By wordy argu- 
ment lost his vantage ground, 150. — Death of, 151. 

Kirk, or Church, of Scotland. Attendance of Montrose at Kirk ser- 
vices in his youth, 129. — Contest of Kirk with Episcopacy, 144 to 152. — 
Riots in Edinburgh and Glasgow, 145, 146. -- Subscribers to Covenant, 154. 

— General Assembly at Glasgow, 156. — Declares Episcopacy unlawful, 
and contrary to word of God, 109. — Kirk in danger, 206. — Dealings of 
the Kirk with thoee who had any communication with Montrose, 236 to 
238, 311. — Discoveries made by Baillie and the Earl of Loudon in regard 
to the English Independents, 529. — Rigids. Moderates. Movement for 
the King, 329, 330, — Its Commissioners to Charles Second, 342. — Deal- 
ings with Montrose, in prison and oto, the scaffold, 372 to 389, 



396 INDEX. 

Lambye, Johx, Tutor of Montrose at St. Andrews, 127. — His accounts, 
128. — Secretary of Montrose, carried to Edinburgh, 197, 198. . 

Laxekick, Earl of. Fled with his brother, Duke Hamilton, at the time 
of the Incident, 200, 201. — Has Baillie's chamber and bed in London, 221. 

— Offers to serve under Montrose, 337. — At the court of Charles Second, 
at the Hague, 341. 

Laud, Archbishop, 145, 151.— Description of him, 151. — Charles First 
guided by him, 151. 

Leslie, General Alexander. Spalding's account of him, 160. — Ac- 
companies Montrose on an expedition to the north, 160, 161. — Com- 
mander-in-chief for the Covenanters, marches south with an army, 164, 
165. — Traits of character, 183. — Raised to the peerage as Earl of 
Levin, 202. 

Leslie, General David. Marches from England, with a large body of 
horse, to oppose Montrose, 290. — Surprises and defeats Montrose at 
Philiphaugh, 294. — Is the same general who met Cromwell at Dun- 
bar, 295. 

Macdonald, Allester, or Alexander. Joins Montrose with his Irish 
troops, 230. — Some account of him, 232. — Gets fifty pounds at Perth^6. 

— Comes in to Blair- Athole with recruits, 249. — Loses his hat, cloak, 
and gloves, 263. — His bravery and rashness at Aulderne, 266. — Knighted 
by Montrose, 288. — Characteristic anecdote of him, 288. — Leaves Mon- 
trose, 289.— Will not join him again, 304.— Held back by the Earl of 
Antrim, 313. 

Maurice, Prince. His nominal commission as Lieutenant-Governor and 

Captain-General of Scotland, 222. — His birth, 346. 
Montrose. James Graham, Earl and Marquis. Biographies of, 115, 116. 

— Family name, 117. — Ancestors, 117, 1 18. — Parentage, 119. — Sisters, 
119. — Place of birth, 138. — Boyhood, 122, 123. — Death of mother, 123.— 
Marriages of sisters Lilias and Margaret, 123, 124. — School days at Glas- 
gow, and his tutor, 125, 126. — His books, 126. — Death of father, and 
funeral, 127. — Curators or guardians, 127. — Entry at College of St. 
Andrews, 127. — Life at college, and tutor, 127 to 136. — Sickness, 133.— 
Marriage, 136, 137. — Portrait by Jamieson, 137. — Marriage contract, 138. 

— Birth of sons John and James, 141. — Sister Katharine's abduction, 
141, 142. — His poems, 130.— At Rossdhu without boots or shoes, 131. 

— At Kinnaird Castle, and saw the daughters of the house, 134. — Party 
at Drurafad, 134, 135. — His scholarship, 138. — Frequent attendance at 
Kirk, 129. — Generous to the poor, 129. — Inclination to out-of-door 
sports, 129, 130. — Travels on the continent, 141, 142. — Presented at Court 
by Hamilton, 143. — Poem dedicated to him, 143, 144. — His signature 
on the Covenant and elsewhere, 153. — His first public appearance with 
the Covenanters, 148. — Means used to engage him in their cause, 147, 148. 

— Elder of a Presbytery, 156. — A member of the Committee of Estates, 
153. — Becomes distrustful of Hamilton's loyalty and honesty, 154, 155. — 
Goes to Aberdeen to get subscribers to the Covenant, 155. — Protests in 
the name of the Scottish nobles, 156. — He will '' avow every jot that is 



INDEX. 



397 



writ," 157.— Stents landholders in Forfar, 157. — Encourages a mob in 
pulling down an organ, and makes a speech in the street, 158. — Ham- 
ilton calls him vainly foolish, 158. — Begins to dislike some of the Lead- 
ers of the Covenanters : leads an army to TurreflF, in the north, 159, 
160. — Appointed General for the Covenanters, 160. — His whimsey-blue 
ribbons, 161, 16^. — Enters Aberdeen with his army, 162. — Conference 
and agreement with Marquis of Huntly, 162, 163. — Complains of " a 
committee and a vote," 163. — Makes Huntly prisoner, 164. — Returns to 
Edinburgh, raises force, and marches north again, 164. — Battle with 
Lord Aboyne at Dunnotter, and storming of the bridge of Dee, 166, 167. 

— His interview with the King at Berwick, 168. — His sons, 168. — Cov- 
enanters become suspicious of him, 169, 170. — Causes of dissatisfaction 
on both sides, 170 to 172. — His letter to the King, 173. — Takes counsel 
with other nobles, and goes to his home, 174. — Hereditary right, 175.— 
Disputes against Argyle, Rothes, &c., 176. — His course in Parliament, 
176. — Levies his regiments for the Covenant, and suppresses the loyal 
Ogilvies, 176, 177. — Trial before Military Committee, 177. — Cumber- 
nauld Bond, 177, 178. — Contest with Argyle, and feud, 177, 178. — Cross- 
ing the Tweed, his figure, 180. — Correspondence with the King, 181. — 
Avows the Cumbernauld Bond, 181, 182. — His discourse with Colonel 
Cochrane, 182, 183. — His trial and imprisonment, the plot and plotters, 
184 to 196. — His personal appearance, 188. — Appears for Parliament, 196. 

— His castles searched by the Covenanters, 197. — The Incident, some 
account of it, 199 to 201. — Released from prison, 201. — Goes to Old 
Montrose and is sick, 203. — His poem on the Faithlessness of the Times, 
203. — Letter on Sovereign Power, 204, 205.— Time when he became con- 
servative, 206. — Letters from the King, 207, 208. — His protest, 207.— 
His difficult position, 211, 212. — Interviews with King and Queen, 213, 
214. — Offers made to him by Covenanters, 214. — Refuses to serve with 
Hamilton, 215. — Interview and conference with Alexander Hender- 
son, 216, 217. — Ceases altogether to act with the Covenanters, 218. — 
Goes to the King with report of affairs, 219. — His plans of service for 
the King, 221, 222.— His commission as Lieutenant-General for the King, 
222.— Unsuccessful attempt to enter Scotland, 222 to 224. — Services 
in the north of England, 224, 225. — Joins Prince Rupert, who takes all 
his forces, 226. — His despatches to the King sent by Lord Ogilvy, 225 to 
228. — Enters on an enterprise very desperate for himself, in the disguise 
of a groom, 228. — Arrives at the house of Patrick Graham, 229. — Gets 
news of the Irish under Allester Macdonald, 230. — Joins the Irish at 
Blair-Athole,231.— The Atholmen come in to him, 232, 233. — Marches 
his army into the Lowlands, 233, 234. — Battle of Tippermuir, 234, 235. — 
His clemency after the battle in Perth, 236 to 238. — Marches northward, 
and takes a " rip of oats " for badge, 241. — Summons city of Aberdeen, 
241. — Battle of Aberdeen, 242. — Retreats before Argyle's army, and 
courses " thrice round about," 244, 248. — His sickness, 245. — Stands at 
bay on the hills of Fyvie, 247. — Foray into Argyleshire, 249, 253. — His 
letter to King Charles, giving account of his foray and battle, 252, 258. — 
March from Loch Ness over the Lochaber Mountains, 255 to 266. — Battle 

34 



398 INDEX. 

of Inverlochy, 256, 257. — Marches northward to Gordon Castle, where 
his son dies, 258, 260. — Joined by the Gordons, 258. — Assault and cap- 
ture of Dundee, 261, 262.— Rapid and skilful retreat, 262, 263. — Joined 
by Lord Gordon and Allester Macdonald, he pursues General Hurry 
through the north) 265. — Battle of Aulderne, 265, 267. — Threatens to 
" use severity " with his prisoners, but does not, 268. — Severe measures 
of the Covenanters against him, 269. ^ Retreats before General Baillie to 
"places of advantage," 270. — Reenforced, marches toward Baillie, ahd 
offers battle, 272. — Battle of Alford, 273, 274. — Joined by many High- 
land clans, 276. — Encamps near Perth, 277. — Moves southward with his 
army, followed by Baillie, 278, 279. — Battle of Kilsythe, 280, 284.— 
Charge against him of cruelty, 284. — His military skill and decisive vic- 
tories, 284, 285. — His camp-court at Bothwell, and humanity, 285, 286.— 
His letter to the poet Hawthornden, 287. — Receives commission as 
Lieutenant-Governor and Captain-General, 287. — Makes proclamation 
for a Parliament, 288.— Ordered by the King, he marches south, 289, 290. 

— Disappointed in aid from the border Earls, he retreats, 293.— Sur- 
prised and defeated at Philiphaugh, 294. -^ Flight to the hills, 297.— His 
letter to Huntly, 299. — Gordons join hinl and desert, 299, 301.— ^Treat- 
ment of prisoners, 302. — Death of his wife, 305. — Of his best friend, 
Lord Napier, 306. — Conference with Huntly, .307. — Correspondence 
with Huntly, 308.-^ Sir Robert Spottiswood's letter to him, 310. — Loss 
of friends by death, 311. — Not easily discornposed, 313. — Correspond- 
ence with Lord Aboyne, 314. — His castle of Kincardine besieged, cap- 
tured, and burned, 315. — The King orders him to disband his army, and 
go into France, 316.=- His letter to the King, 317. — His capitulation 
with General Middletonj and conditions, 319.^^ Takes leave of his fbl- 
lowers, and goes to Old Montrose, 320. — King's letter to him, 320. — Es- 
capes in disguise of a servant, and embarks for Norway, 321, 322. — Jour- 
neys to Denmark, thence to Hamburg, 322. — His proposition to Queen 
Henrietta to raise an army in Scotland, 323. — Letter from the King, .323. 

— Letter from the Queen, 325. — His correspondence and negotiations 
with Queen Henrietta, 325 to 327. — Objects to Lilias Napier's going 
into the Queen's household, .328. — Honors, oflBces, and emoluments 
offered him by the French, 331. — Goes into Germany, and is made Field 
Marshal, 333, .334. — Bishop Burnet's dispraise and Cardinal de Retz' praise 
of him, .3.34, .335. — Correspondence with Prince Rupert, 336, 337. — By re- 
quest of Charles Second, appoints to meet Chancellor Hyde, 3-38. — Greatly 
shocked by news of the death of Charles First, a38. — His verses on the 
event, 3.39. — Some account of his metrical productions, 339.— His devo- 

' tion to Charles First, .340. — Scotch Commissioners' abuse of him to 
Charles Second, 342, 343. —Charges of cruelty, ambition, vanity, .343. — 
His counsel to Charles Second, 343, 344. — Commissioned by Charles 
Second, .345. — Intercourse and correspondence with Elizabeth Stuart, 
346 to .348, .350 to 352. — He goes to north of Europe, to organize an 
expedition to Scotland, 349 to 353. — Delays and difficulties there, 350 to 
360. — Letters to him from Charles Second, .356 to 358. — His passions 
or state of mind in exile, 359. — Embarks for Scotland, 360, 361. ^ Arrives 



INDEX. 399 

at Orkneys, 361. — His landing on the main, and march southward, 362 
to 364. — Defeated and wounded at Corbiesdale, 365. — His flight and 
capture, 365, 366. — Dealings of Charles Second with him, 366 to 369.— 
His procession as captive from north of Scotland t6 Edinburgh, 370 to 
375. — Interview with his sons, 373. — In the Tolbooth, visited by minis- 
ters and committees, 375 to 387. — His answers to charges made by min- 
isters of the Kirk, 378 to 380. — His personal vices, 381. — His appearance 
before the Parliament, and speech, 382, 383. — His sentence, 384. — His 
prayers and verse in prison, 386.^ His dress, going to execution, 387. — 
His demeanor, 388. — His execution, 389, 390. 

Montrose, John Graham, fourth Earl of, 118. — Children of, 119, 123.— 
At Mugdok, 126. — Death of, and burial, 127. 

Montrose, Town of. Description, 120, 121. — Homestead there repaired, 
136. — The Marquis of Montrose sees it for the last time, 373. 

Murray, William. Sends copy of Montrose's letter to the King to the Cov- 
enanters, 181, — Some account of him and his particular quality, 200, 202. 
— Agent of Argyle at the Hague, 342. — Agent of Charles Second, 368. 

Napier, Archibald, Lord. Married Margaret Graham, 123. — Guardian 
of Montrose, 127. — His friend and counsellor always, 152. — Loyal to 
King, but opposed to Episcopacy, 153. — His age and character, 153.— 
One of the Plotters, 183, 184. — His trial and account of it, 184 to 196. — 
Imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, 192. — Refuses to be released without 
trial, 194, 195. — Appears before King in Parliament, and speaks, 198. — 
Released from prison, 202. — His protest, 207. — Petition to Privy Coun- 
cil, 209. — Fined and imprisoned by the Covenanters, 268. — Origin of the 
name Napier, 268. ---His death, 306. 

Napier, Master of, afterwards Lord. Commands the reserve at battle 
of Allord, 273. — Married the Lady Elizabeth Erskine, 269. — Besieged in 
the Castle of Kincardine : his escape, 315. — His letter to his wife, 330. — 
His wife, Lady Elizabeth Erskine, got the heart of Montrose after his 
deatli, and embalmed it, 334. 

Ogilvies* Loyalists, 176. — Montrose disarms them gently, but Argyle 
roughly and brutally, 176, 177. — He burns their Castle of Airlie, 177. — 
Lord Ogilvy, 213, 217, 221, 223, 225, 226, 228. — Sir Thomas, Sir David, 240, 
248, 257, 278. - Earl of Airlie, 240, 248, 256, 278, 279. 

Rossdhu, on Loch Lomond. Its scenery, 124. — Residence of Montrose's 
sister Lilias, 124, — Montrose there in his boyhood, 124. — There again 
destitute of boots or shoes, 131. 

Rothes, Earl of. Brought in Montrose, 148. — Also Alexander Leslie, 161. 

Rupert, Prince. Summons Montrose to join him, 225. — Takes from 
Montrose all his troops, 225. — His correspondence with Montrose in 
exile, 336. — His difficulties getting his fleet under way, 336. — His pro- 
ceedings and privateering for the public good, 355. 

RUTHVEN, second Earl of Gowrie. Lost his life in the Gowrie conspir- 
acy, 119. 



400 INDEX. 

RuTHVEN, Margaret, mother of Montrose, and daughter of Earl of 

Gowrie, 119, — Her death, 123. 
RuTHVEN, William, Earl of Gowrie. Maternal grandfather of Montrose, 

leader in Raid of Ruthven, 119. 

St. Andrews. City and university, 129, 130. — Montrose at college there, 

129 to 136. 
Scotland. Clannish, 132. — State of society in, 139, HO. — Religious state 

in 1636, lU to 152. — History of its bishops, 148 to 152. — Tulchaus, 149. 

— Religious temper of its people very old, 146, 147. — Its nobles gen- 
erally opposed to bishops, 1.52, 153. — People generally loyal to King, 
159. — State of the country described by Montrose, 183, 184. — Change of 
affairs, 203, 212. — Solemn League and Covenant, and other events, 219, 
220. — Army raised, 220. 

Seaforth, Earl of, 194. — Gathers an army to oppose Montrose, 254. — 
His army disbanded, 258. — His negotiations with Montrose, and vacil- 
lations, 308, 309, 312. 

Spottiswood, Sir Robert. Brings commission to Montrose after battle 
of Kilsythe, 287, 289. — His letter to Lord Digby, 290. — Taken prisoner 
at Philiphaugh, 299. — Beheaded, 309. — His letter to Montrose, 310. 

Stirling, Sir George, of Keir. One of the "Plotters," 183, 184.— 
Married a niece of Montrose, 184. — Trial, 185 to 196. — Imprisoned in 
Castle, 192. — Released, 201, 202. — Imprisoned again and released, 286. 

Stuart, Elizabeth. Queen of Bohemia, 336. — Some account of her, 346. 

— Her correspondence with Montrose, 346 to 354. 

Traquair, Earl of. King's Commissioner, 175. — His treachery, and Sir 
Philip Warwick's report of him, 290, 291, 297, 298. 

WiGTON, Countess of. The Lady Lilias Graham, maternal aunt of Mon- 
trose, 132. — Active in cause of the Kirk, 1.32. 

WiGTON, Earl of. Cousin and guardian of Montrose, 127. — His seat at 
Cumbernauld, 132. — With party at Drumfad, 134. 

WiSHART, George. Biographer of Montrose, 115. — Minister at St. An- 
drews, 136. — In danger of death by rats, 321.— Goes abroad with Mon- 
trose, 321. 



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